A boy died and a woman was injured early Wednesday morning after a fire burned through a home on the New Hampshire seacoast.
Rescuers tried to get to the child, but the flames were too intense.
The state fire marshal said three adults and four children managed to escape the burning home on Thorwald Avenue in Hampton, but a young boy never made it out.
“Awful. Just awful, that he didn’t get out. Terrible,” neighbor Marcie Bergan said.
Hampton firefighters believe the fire started sometime after midnight.
When they got there, the home was already consumed by fire and firefighters made several attempts to try and rescue the child, who at the time was unaccounted for, but the fire was too intense and they weren’t able to get in.
“The fire building was heavily involved. There was no access made to that initial building,” Hampton Fire Department Capt. Justin Cutting said.
After the fire was out, they found the boy, who has not been identified, dead inside.
A close family friend said it’s vacation week in Hampton, and she believes some of the children were visiting.
“So I don’t know who exactly was in the house at the time,” family friend Angela Duquette said.
The police chief said one woman who escaped the burning home was transported to a Boston hospital with burns and smoke inhalation.
Firefighters evacuated several neighbors, as the fire jumped to a second home.
“We watched the first one burn, and it was just huge flames, and then the next one caught on fire,” the neighbor Bergan said.
The family who lived in the home took in rescue guinea pigs.
Neighbors spotted several in cages outside the home.
“They we’re just kind of piled up already outside. So we don’t know who got them out,” neighbor Nikki Nolan said.
Nolan and her boyfriend ran to get the surviving guinea pigs out of the cold.
“We think she had maybe about 50, and we only have 16, but at least we were able to save some of them,” Nolan said.
The state fire marshal’s office and Hampton police and fire departments are investigating the fire.