NEED TO KNOW
- Four siblings, including three children, have died in a Louisiana house fire
- A 46-year-old woman managed to escape the fire and was treated at a local hospital
- The source of the fire is under investigation; however, the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal urges residents to make sure their smoke alarms are working properly
Four siblings, including three children, died in a “devastating fatal fire” in Lafourche Parish, La., on Thursday, July 24. Lafourche Parish Fire District 1 was alerted to the house fire on Rodriguez Drive in the Raceland community around 1 a.m. Thursday, the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal said in a Facebook release.
After firefighters arrived at the scene, they “located the bodies of four victims,” the Fire Marshal added. One woman, 46, managed to escape and was treated at a local hospital.
Fire officials believe the victims were a 20-year-old female, a 14-year-old boy, a 12-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.
The Lafourche Parish Coroner’s Office later identified the victims as Bennaja Robinson, 20, Benjamin Bradley, 14, Karlie Bradley, 12, and Dre’Trelle Bradley, 6, per WDSU. WWLTV and FOX 8. They are all siblings, according to WDSU and WWLTV.
The 46-year-old woman who was injured has not been publicly identified.
PEOPLE reached out to the Lafourche Parish Coroner’s Office and the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal.
“Calls like these are what we dread in the fire service,” said DPS Principal Assistant Chief Bryan J. Adams in the Fire Marshal’s release. “We don’t know what might have made a difference to prevent this fire, but we know in any fire, smoke alarms can give families critical, extra time to escape a fire. Every home should have at least one working smoke alarm protecting them at all times.”
Joey Woodward, who lives nearby, recalled hearing a loud bang on his front door around 1:00 a.m. Thursday.
“I walked outside and saw all of the smoke and yelled, ‘Do you need me to call 911?’ She yelled, ‘Yes,’ Woodward told WWLTV. “And then I heard windows starting to break. They were trying to get to their children in there. Immediately obviously called 911. They just couldn’t get here quick enough.”
Woodward, whose alarm camera captured the scene, added: “There was so much smoke, you couldn’t even see the house.”
Angelle Kramer, a neighbor whose grandson frequently played with the Bradley children, remembered the victims as “very sweet children.”
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“Very nice. Very polite kids,” she told WWLTV. “They will be greatly missed. Nobody should have to bury a child, much less four at one time.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation; however, the Fire Marshal’s office is urging residents to make sure their homes are properly protected with smoke alarms. The fire agency noted that the tragedy is the fourth deadly fire this week involving a smoke alarm that was not working properly.
