PUEBLO, COLO. -- Update:
Crime tape and 'Do Not Enter' signs surround the single family home at the center of Tuesday morning's fatal fire in Pueblo.
"I'm still in shock. I just can't believe it I had texted April this morning I was just waiting, and waiting hoping she would text me back," Debbie Loreto, a friend of the victims said.
According to the Pueblo Fire Chief Chris Riley said it took crews only three minutes to respond but with smoke billowing out of the home.
It quickly turned into an "all hands" situation as firefighters focused on locating the four people living inside, two adults and two children.
"The children were two years and three months, and they were towards the back of the house near the rear door. It appears they were trying to get out rear door and were overcome with smoke," Chris Riley, Chief of the Pueblo Fire Department said.
From early reports it appears the fire started from someone smoking, accelerating because of a home oxygen tank inside the home.
It took firefighters 10-15 minutes to knock the fire down and remove the victims identified as 62-year-old Harvey Montoya, 26-year-old April Hon, three month old Frankie Anaya, and two-year-old Michael Hon-Montoya.
"Pulling out victims of a fire is emotionally very difficult, and trying," Riley said.
A trying day for the community dealing with the worst fire they've seen in the last 25 years.
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Earlier:
A 2-year-old toddler and a 3-month-old baby are among four people who died in a house fire in Pueblo early Tuesday morning.
According to Pueblo Fire officials, two adults also died when a home on East 2nd Street went up in flames around 2:09 a.m. in what fire officials are calling Pueblo's deadliest fire in almost 30 years.
The four victims were the only ones in the house. Investigators said the mother was in her 20s but haven't released any information about the other adult who died.
Officials said the fire started because someone on oxygen was smoking, which caused a spark.
No other information has been released.