CAHOKIA HEIGHTS, Ill. — Two 4-year-old children were killed Friday afternoon in a house fire in Cahokia Heights.
Firefighters responded shortly after 2 p.m. to a fire at a home on St. Gregory Drive.
A boy and a girl were trapped in the home, Cahokia Heights Fire Chief Stephen Robbins said.
Firefighters pulled both children out of bedrooms; the boy, Chad Metcalf, was pronounced dead at the scene. The girl, Sharli Edmonds, died at a St. Louis hospital.
"I just want my babies back," the children's mother, Crystal Bates, said as she stood outside her burned home.
Bates said she was taking a shower when she came out to notice the home was on fire. She yelled for her children to come out when one responded, "I can't, mommy. It's too hot."
Those were the last words Bates said she heard.
"The mama was like, 'My baby is in there. My baby is in there,'" neighbor Jewel Dickerson said.
He ran across the street to help.
"It was a lot of smoke. It was a lot, so I take my shirt off before it got deeper. When I took my shirt off, that's when it started coming down, coming down. ... I tried but it didn't work. I couldn't do nothing," he said.
Firefighters from multiple agencies put out the flames within 20 minutes.
"Anytime we lose someone in a house fire, it's tough. But when it's children this young, it hits hard. ... The guys are definitely taking this one a little hard this evening," Robbins said.
Investigators believe the fire may have started in the bedroom where one of the children died, but the Illinois State Fire Marshal was still investigating.
Bates questioned if her son got ahold of a lighter and possibly set a curtain on fire.
"However it happened, it shouldn't have happened. Wish it never did. Them kids' life is gone," Dickerson said.
A GoFundMe campaign was created to help Chad and Sharli's family with the loss and funeral costs. If you would like to donate, click here.