Woman, 3 children killed in mobile home fire

CONROE, TX The flames started early Sunday morning off 1st St. and Patricia Lane in Montgomery County.

"When I wake up this morning and see this -- that's bad," neighbor Jose Martinez said.

"We could feel the heat just standing in our yard. That's how bad it was," neighbor Brian Gonzalez said. "Everything was just burning down."

There is not much left to see here, but more to remember.

"They're little babies. I remember them playing," neighbor Monica Gonzalez said. "I'm a mom and I would go crazy, too. Seriously, I would."

Monica Gonzalez lives across the street. She called 9-1-1, and then grabbed her cell phone and hit record.

There were three adults and four small children inside the mobile home. They had returned around midnight from a family party.

Less than three hours later, they were scrambling to save themselves.

Firefighters arrived around 2:45am and made entry as quickly as they could, but officials said it was already too late.

Conroe Fire Department Chief Ken Kreger said crews arrived to find flames shooting from the treetops. The mobile home was engulfed and the inside was filled with heavy toxic gases.

"That doesn't give us much of a chance to get survivors out when it's totally involved," Kreger said.

The father -- who neighbors identified as Ismael Pineda -- broke a window to pull his six-year-old daughter, Daniella, out of the home.

He screamed to firefighters to keep searching the bedroom. There, they found more trapped victims: three-year-old Alejandro Camacho, six-year-old Sergio Camacho and nine-year-old Eric Pineda. None of them survived.

A woman -- Celia Camacho, 24 -- also died.

The survivors were all transported to Conroe Regional Hospital for treatment. According to authorities, the man and woman were in stable condition. Fire officials said the father had cuts to his arms and smoke inhalation from his efforts to rescue the others.

The woman and little girl both suffered from smoke inhalation.

It took five engine companies and one ladder company about two hours to get the fire under control. Fire officials are currently investigating the cause.

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