Texas

3 Kids, Grandmother Die in Texas House Fire After Trying to Stay Warm During Blackout

Jackie Pham Nguyen, the children's mother, "had to be physically restrained from running back into her burning home," according to a city spokesperson

Texas house fire
KPRC

Three children and their grandmother died in a house fire last week near Houston during a power outage as historic cold weather swept Texas, according to local officials, NBC News reports.

Firefighters received an emergency call around 2 a.m. on Feb. 16 and arrived at Jackie Pham Nguyen's home shortly after, only to find the structure already "engulfed" in flames, according to Doug Adolph, a spokesman for the city of Sugar Land.

Nguyen, the mother of the three children, was outside the house and "had to be physically restrained from running back into her burning home," Adolph said.

After dousing the blaze, firefighters found the bodies of the three children — 11-year-old Olivia, 8-year-old Edison, and 5-year-old Colette — and their grandmother.

Adolph said their neighborhood had been without electricity for hours and that the family had posted to social media that they were lighting their fireplace to stay warm in the dark. However, he cautioned the investigation is ongoing and that officials "have not yet identified a cause of the fire, and it's possible we never will."

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

As temperatures slowly rise, Texans are surveying historic damage left by a week of frigid temperatures and power outages.
Contact Us