UPDATED: 5:55 p.m.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Four people were found dead inside of a burned out rowhome Saturday morning, according to Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel.
Firefighters responded to a call just before 8 a.m. to a home on Kip Street, near Ontario Street in Kensington and found heavy smoke and fire bursting from the first and second floors.
"As we always do," Thiel explained, "we made an aggressive interior attack, pushed into the building with multiple hose lines."
One victim, a 35-year-old woman, was found on the first floor. Her three children, two boys ages 9 and 17, and an 11-year-old girl, were found upstairs. All were pronounced dead at the scene.
It's still unclear whether their deaths were fire-related.
It took 60 firefighters, medics and support workers to control what Thiel called "an all-hands fire."
He called the tragedy "a very difficult morning," saying, "The worst thing for any firefighter is not being able to save a life. There was a level of fire spread, it happened very fast, apparently."
Both the front and back of the home were blackened from smoke, while the surrounding homes seemed to remain intact.
The incident is still under investigation.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed all three children as boys. One of the children was an 11-year-old girl.
KYW Newsradio's Mike Dougherty and Antionette Lee contributed to this report.
