SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Emergency medical response officials confirmed Monday that four children and two adults died in a Washington County house fire after midnight on July 24.
Central EMS responded to the fire in the Nob Hill area on Treehouse Road in the early morning hours on Sunday.
According to the Washington County Sheriff's Office (WCSO), a call came in around 2 a.m. about a trailer house on fire with people still in it. One child was able to escape but the two adults and four other children weren't, WCSO said.
The WCSO says the fire was in such a rural part of the county, that it made it difficult to put out the flames because of the travel involved and lack of water supply.
“So, we’re having to run multiple tanker trucks to keep the water flowing down to be able to put this out,” said Tyler McCartney with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. “Even though Washington County as a whole has a great job doing that… being able to supply water it’s still a logistics rather than hooking up to a hydrant.”
On Monday afternoon, Springdale Public Schools announced that victims of the house fire included students enrolled in the district.
“We lift up the family and we grieve together,” said Jared Cleveland, Springdale Public Schools superintendent. “When one member of our Springdale family suffers, we all suffer.”
The district said it will work with the family to "assess needs and determine how the district can best come alongside them during this challenging time."
“Anytime you have kids of any age, it makes it even harder and this is definitely considered a mass casualty if you will,” said McCartney. “To date, I even called the fire investigators that retired from doing this and they’ve never had a loss like this in Washington County.”
The bodies have been sent to the crime lab for more information. Officials have not released the identities of the victims at this time.
The Nob Hill Fire Department, Goshen Fire Department, Round Mountain Fire Department, Hindsville Fire Department, Central EMS, Air Evac, as well as Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies and the Washington County Coroner’s Office responded to the scene.
Detectives with the sheriff's office are investigating the cause of the fire.
5NEWS will update this article with more information as it becomes available.
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