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NEED TO KNOW
- Twin 4-year-old boys have died after they were caught in a house fire in Nashville on Monday, July 28
- They have been identified as Lathan and Langston McDaniel
- Lathan and Langston were “micro-preemie survivors” and faced “a lot of health challenges during their lives,” according to a family friend
Twin boys have died after they were trapped in a house fire in Nashville.
The fire broke out at a home in the 2000 block of Arbor Pointe Way after 4:30 a.m. local time on Monday, July 28, according to NBC affiliate WSMV-TV and CBS affiliate WTVF.
First responders reportedly found a mother and one of her three children outside, and were told by the mom that two other children, both 4, were still inside on the second floor of the home.
Firefighters found the two children inside and removed them from the home. Life-saving measures were attempted, but the children died at the scene, per the reports.
The children have been identified as Lathan and Langston McDaniel, according to The Tennessean and a GoFundMe campaign for the twins’ family.
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“We’re very saddened that today in this home we lost those two children,” Nashville Fire Department (NFD) spokesperson Kendra Loney said, according to WTVF.
The NFD did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Lacey Corbitt, a family friend who organized the GoFundMe, said the twins were “micro-preemie survivors” and faced “a lot of health challenges during their lives.” Still, she said, the boys “were absolutely the lights of our world.”
“Words cannot express the grief and despair this whole family (and the village it has taken to love and support them well) are currently experiencing,” Corbitt wrote in the description of the online fundraiser. “I am trying to assist this family in renewing all that they have lost that is possible to replace.”
She continued, “We will never be able to get back their beautiful miracle twins, but maybe we can try to help replace all that has been lost.”
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More than $12,000 has been raised through the GoFundMe campaign as of Wednesday, July 30.
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Corbitt said the boy’s mom, Jessica McDaniel, is “broken” after the fire killed her sons, according to The Tennessean.
“They are physically ok … mentally, she’s not ok,” Corbitt explained.
