Three girls and one boy, all cousins, died in a fire Tuesday night that broke out near the Osage Beach condominium unit where they had gathered to celebrate one of the children's birthdays.
The fire, which broke out at the Compass Pointe Condominiums on Passover Road in Osage Beach, is believed to have started either "in or very near" the fourth-floor unit where the children were found, said Osage Beach Fire Protection District Chief Jeff Dorhauer at a press conference Wednesday morning.
The children were found unresponsive by firefighters who entered the home after the flames were brought under control sufficiently to make entry safe.
Dorhauer said his department received a 9-1-1 call reporting the fire at about 11:21 p.m. Aug. 4. He said it took firefighters about eight minutes to reach the scene where they found the fourth floor of the condo building heavily engulfed in flames.
"There was fire coming out of the windows and the roof," he said. "Firefighters saw two people hanging out a fourth floor window and immediately put up a ladder and got them out," Dorhauer said. "But the fire in the unit next door was so intense we had to knock it down before our guys could get in."
The two individuals who were rescued were occupying a condo unit next door to the one where the children died.
The children, who authorities declined to identify, included two 2-year-old girls, a 4-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy whose birthday the family had gathered to celebrate. All the children are believed to be full-time residents of the Lake of the Ozarks area.
Dorhauer said the father of one of the children was in attendance when the fire was discovered; however, the intensity of the blaze prevented him from reaching the children.
"All he could do was get himself out," Dorhauer said. "He tried to go back in, but the fire was so heavy even our firefighters couldn't get in until the blaze was knocked down some."
The child's mother was at work when the fire broke out, Dorhauer said.
Dorhauer, who said he saw the children when they were brought out, declined to speculate on how they died. The children were taken by ambulance to Lake Regional Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
"I would prefer not to give an opinion on the cause of death until an autopsy is performed," Dorhauer said.
Those autopsies were scheduled for late Wednesday; however, Dorhauer said he did not know when the results would be made public.
Also present at the press conference was Osage Beach Police Chief Todd Davis, who said while his department responded to the scene and was assisting with the investigation there was no reason to suspect foul play.
The Missouri State Fire Marshall, as well as a number of other fire and police investigators, are on the scene today trying to determine the cause of the blaze.
Dorhauer said while there were reports of neighbors hearing an explosion it was believed that explosion came after the fire had already started and was not the cause of the blaze.
"It could have been a propane tank on a barbecue grill, an air conditioner unit or something as simple as an aerosol can that exploded because of the heat," Dorhauer said. "The investigators are also trying to determine exactly what the neighbors heard."
Dorhauer said because the condo complex was built some 40 years ago the individual units were not equipped with a sprinkler system. However, there are working smoke detectors in the individual units and those smoke detectors were working at the time of the fire.
Even though all the buildings in the condo complex were evacuated during the height of the blaze, Dorhauer said, the residents of the other buildings were allowed to return once the flames were suppressed.
Only the building in which the fire actually occurred was "uninhabitable" following the blaze.
Dorhauer said he is unsure exactly how many units in the four-story building full-time residents occupy because a number of them were empty at the time of the fire.
The Lake Ozark, Sunrise Beach and Mid-County fire protection districts, as well as fire departments from the cities of Camdenton and Eldon, assisted the Osage Beach Fire Protection District at the scene. Also assisting were the Miller County Ambulance District and the City of Osage Beach Ambulance Service, as well as officers with the Osage Beach Police Department, the Camden County Sheriff's Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Related:
Benefit for family of children who died in Tuesday condo fire set for Sunday