Strawberry Mansion fire that left woman and two children dead being investigated as arson, police say
Another woman was in critical condition at Temple University Hospital after jumping from the second floor while holding a third child
Homicide detectives have launched an arson investigation into a rowhouse fire that left a woman and two children dead in the city’s Strawberry Mansion section Friday morning.
A person has been taken into custody for questioning, but no charges have been filed, a police spokesperson said Friday night.
The fire occurred just before 5 a.m. when five people were inside a home on the 2500 block of North Corlies Street, according to a statement from the Philadelphia Fire Department.
Upon arriving, first responders found a woman dead on the second floor as flames and heavy smoke wafted up from the first.
Two 6-year-old children died after being taken to a hospital, police said.
The woman was pregnant, NBC10 reported, and the deceased children were also hers.
The names of the victims have not been released.
Another woman was in stable condition at a hospital, as was a 2-year-old child, police said.
The woman jumped from a window while holding the child, 6abc reported.
Officials confirmed that there were functional smoke alarms inside the home at the time of the fire, which was brought under control before 5:30 a.m. Friday.
The Philadelphia Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the blaze but has not officially released a determination as to the cause.
The Strawberry Mansion house looked burnt, almost like a struck match, from near the first-floor windows to the roof on Friday afternoon.
Two relatives of the victims had been sitting on neighboring steps since the morning. Dozens of mourners, including the block’s Democratic ward leader, gathered around them to pray.
“Everybody on the block knew them,” said a family friend who’d lived on the block. The friend gave only his first name, Jay, because a relative was killed in the area. “We were all neighbors.”
Jay had just attended a move-up day for one of the children, he said.
The house was once filled with toys and furniture, much of which lay in an ashen heap on the block. Members of the fire department and the ATF sifted through the wreckage, occasionally descending the front steps carrying buckets of ash.