Seven children were among 11 people who died when a horrific fire trapped them inside a one-story Memphis home early Monday morning.

Pictures of the devastation showed the innards of the brick building torched. The outside of the house was left largely untouched. Metal bars remained over almost all the windows. Only one was broken open, by the fire crew that tried in vain to save the people inside.

“I’ve never seen firemen cry, but they were bawling like babies when they brought the children out,” neighbor Shoundra Hampton told The Tennessean.

Authorities said at a Monday morning news conference that nine people had died, but family members told reporters that 11 people perished.

The cause of the fire was not immediately determined, though Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said the blaze began in the living room. The home had only two doors, both in the front of the house, leaving the family without an escape route, FOX13 reported.

Some of the victims had signs of smoke inhalation, while others had burns, Memphis Fire Services Director Gina Sweat said.

Sweat said it was not clear if those inside tried to escape through the windows. Sweat said window bars present a danger for people trying to escape a house fire, though many window bars have releases that can open them from the inside.

"They could have been simply overcome by smoke and never had an opportunity to escape," she said.

A smoke detector was found in the building, but it was damaged and officials didn't immediately know if it was working at the time of the fire, Sweat said.

The children who died ranged in age from 3 to 16 years old, The Tennessean reported. The four adults were Eloise Futrell, 61; Carol Collier, 56; Lakeisha Ward, 27; and an unidentified 18-year-old man.

Collier lived in the house with her 6-year-old son, Alonzo, who died in the fire; Futrell, who was the grandmother of all seven children who died; and several friends, Collier’s sister, Mary Whitmore, told The Tennessean.

"She always tried to help everybody," Whitmore said. "I can't believe this."

Collier called 911, The Tennessean reported, but, by the time first responders arrived around 1:20 a.m., the residents were unable to escape the six-room dwelling.

Officials said the blaze was the deadliest in Memphis since the 1920s. A total of 10 people died in house fires across all of Tennessee in 2015, authorities told FOX13.

"They are all gone," Futrell's niece, Elisa Weathersby, told The Tennessean. "Our hearts are ripped in two."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> Criminal case to be filed in Bangladesh fire that killed 25

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A Bangladeshi housing official said Friday criminal charges would be filed against the owner of a building where a fire killed 25 people and which had four upper floors constructed illegally.

Minister for Housing and Public Work S.M. Rezaul Karim also pledged to take action against officials in his ministry if they were guilty of wrongdoing associated with allowing the added floors or other violations.

Raising buildings beyond approved design is rampant in Bangladesh, where the government is seeking fast economic development and the private sector is expanding.

The blaze that burned for several hours Thursday trapped people inside the building, some shouting for help from windows on upper floors and the roof. By Friday morning, no smoke was visible at the FR Tower on a busy avenue in Dhaka's Banani commercial district.

Mostak Ahmed, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press on Friday that the death toll rose to 25 with all but one identified. Based on information provided by relatives, no one appeared to still be unaccounted for, he said. "Still we are checking, if someone comes to us we will verify," he said.

The fire injured about 70 people, many of them now being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burn unit.

The fire was the latest in a country where crowding, flouted building regulations and safety norms have made deadly blazes common.

Last month, a fire in the oldest part of Dhaka, a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses, left at least 67 people dead.

In 2012, a fire at a garment factory killed at least 112 people trapped behind its locked gates. Less than six months later, another building containing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

Another fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in Old Dhaka killed at least 123 people in 2010. </s> DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A fire in a high-rise office building in Bangladesh’s capital has been brought under full control with the death toll climbing to 25, fire officials said Friday.

The blaze that burned for several hours Thursday had trapped people inside the building, some shouting for help from windows on upper floors and the roof. But fire officials later said most had been rescued. By Friday morning, no smoke was visible and firefighters and forensic investigators were working at the scene.

Mostak Ahmed, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press on Friday that the death toll rose to 25 with all but one identified. Based on information provided by relatives, no one appeared to still be unaccounted for, he said. “Still we are checking, if someone comes to us we will verify,” he said.

The fire injured about 70 people, many of them now being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit.

Fire Service duty officer Forhadul Alam said hospital authorities have started handing over the bodies to their families.

The fire at the FR Tower, on a busy avenue in Dhaka’s Banani commercial district, was the latest in a country where crowding, flouted building regulations and safety norms have made deadly blazes common.

Last month, a fire in the oldest part of Dhaka, a 400-year-old area cramped with apartments, shops and warehouses, left at least 67 people dead.

In 2012, a fire at a garment factory killed at least 112 people trapped behind its locked gates. Less than six months later, another building containing garment factories collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people.

Another fire in a house illegally storing chemicals in Old Dhaka killed at least 123 people in 2010. </s> The setting sun obscured by smoke from t the Carr Fire in Redding, Calif., July 31, 2018. The fire has killed at least six people and displaced tens of thousands thus far. (Jim Wilson/The New York Times)

Signs of encouragement for first responders is hung on a city in Redding, Calif., July 31, 2018. A wildfire, named the Carr fire, has killed at least six people and displaced tens of thousands thus far around Redding. (Jim Wilson/The New York Times) less

Signs of encouragement for first responders is hung on a city in Redding, Calif., July 31, 2018. A wildfire, named the Carr fire, has killed at least six people and displaced tens of thousands thus far around ... more

Firefighters try to control a back burn as the Carr fire continues to spread towards the towns of Douglas City and Lewiston near Redding, California on July 31, 2018. Two firefighters were killed fighting the blaze and three people, a 70 year old woman and her two great-grandchildren age four and five, perished when their Redding home was rapidly swallowed up by flames. / AFP PHOTO / Mark RALSTONMARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images less

Firefighters try to control a back burn as the Carr fire continues to spread towards the towns of Douglas City and Lewiston near Redding, California on July 31, 2018. Two firefighters were killed fighting the ... more

Firefighters gather as the procession for Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke passes in Redding, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Stoke, who died last week in the Carr Fire, was being taken from the coroner's office to a funeral home. Fire officials say a massive blaze in Northern California that has killed six people and torched more than 1,000 homes grew overnight, fueled by wind. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday firefighters made some gains and the blaze is now a third contained. (AP Photo/Michael Burke) less

Firefighters gather as the procession for Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke passes in Redding, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Stoke, who died last week in the Carr Fire, was being taken from the coroner's ... more

People visit a memorial for Jeremy Stoke of the Redding Fire Department near where he was killed in the Carr Fire, Saturday, Aug. 11, 2018, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

This Thursday, June 26, 2018, photo released by Casey Lansdon shows Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke in Redding, Calif. A wildfire roared with little warning into the Northern California city as thousands of people scrambled to escape before the walls of flames descended from forested hills onto their neighborhoods, officials said Friday. Stoke was killed in the blaze. (Casey Lansdon via AP) less

This Thursday, June 26, 2018, photo released by Casey Lansdon shows Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke in Redding, Calif. A wildfire roared with little warning into the Northern California city as thousands of ... more

From left, Shasta County Health and Human Services workers Mike Rinehart, Jon Taylor, Melanie Gilchrist and Theresa Ellis stand and watch as the procession for Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke passes in Redding, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Stoke, who died last week in the Carr Fire, was being taken from the coroner's office to a funeral home. Fire officials say a massive blaze in Northern California that has killed six people and torched more than 1,000 homes grew overnight, fueled by wind. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday firefighters made some gains and the blaze is now a third contained. (AP Photo/Michael Burke) less

From left, Shasta County Health and Human Services workers Mike Rinehart, Jon Taylor, Melanie Gilchrist and Theresa Ellis stand and watch as the procession for Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke passes in ... more

Shasta County Health and Human Services workers and others stand and watch as the procession for Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke passes in Redding, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Stoke, who died last week in the Carr Fire, was being taken from the coroner's office to a funeral home. Fire officials say a massive blaze in Northern California that has killed six people and torched more than 1,000 homes grew overnight, fueled by wind. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Thursday firefighters made some gains and the blaze is now a third contained. (AP Photo/Michael Burke) less

Shasta County Health and Human Services workers and others stand and watch as the procession for Redding fire inspector Jeremy Stoke passes in Redding, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Stoke, who died last week ... more

Gary Parmely, father of Jeremy Stoke of the Redding Fire Department, visits a memorial for his son who was killed in the Carr Fire.

Death came in an instant. And as never seen before in California history.

The Redding firefighter who died on July 26 as the fast-growing Carr Fire hit its apex was in fact killed by a fire tornado, the most intense tornado ever in the state, according to a report The Chronicle obtained Wednesday.

The monster tornado with a base the size of three football fields and winds up to 165 miles an hour swept down upon Jeremiah “Jeremy” Stoke in mere seconds, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection report.

At 7:39 p.m. the longtime Redding Fire Department veteran was driving his Ford F-150 truck down Buenaventura Road in northwest Redding, working on evacuating residents. One minute later he radioed out a “mayday” call saying he was getting burned over, and then his transmissions abruptly stopped, according to Cal Fire’s Green Sheet, the agency’s report on serious injuries and accidents.

Fire dispatchers desperately tried to find him by “pinging” his cell phone. One Cal Fire supervisor, leading evacuees as he went, drove north on Buenaventura toward where Stoke, a 37-year-old fire inspector, had been headed. There was no sign of him.

The blazes all around continued so savagely that his body wasn’t located until early the next morning by Redding fire crews. He was among six firefighters killed this year as they fought or responded to California’s historic wildfires. That’s made this the most lethal season for fire crews since 2008.

Meanwhile, the tornado was so ferocious it pulsed with 2,700 degrees of heat. It ripped roofs off houses and flung cars, power line towers and a steel shipping container into the air — all within a half-mile of the spot where Stoke was believed to have been trapped, according to the report. The phenomenon, exploding in the middle of what was already a gigantic, devastating wildfire, was so unusual even Cal Fire investigators are still struggling to understand it.

“Observations from witnesses and other evidence suggest that either several fire tornadoes occurred at different locations and times, or one fire tornado formed and then periodically weakened and strengthened causing several separate damage areas,” the report said.

Regardless of those specifics, the sight alone of the tornado that overwhelmed Stoke was awful. Several videos included in the Green Sheet show a terrifying, huge funnel dwarfing houses and fields as it shoves its swirling, flame-filled clouds high into the air. One video shows a tornado skipping along the water’s surface at Keswick Dam.

Stoke was well familiar with the dangers of out-of-control wildfires. But this tornado, the report and experts say, was unlike anything experienced before in California — quick, hot, huge and unpredictable.

UC Berkeley forensics Professor George Sensabaugh told The Chronicle that given the ruthlessness of the tornado, there was probably little Stoke could have done to save himself.

“I haven’t heard of anything quite like that,” he said, adding that some aspects of the tornado remind him of the historic bombing in World War II that destroyed the German city of Dresden. “I can’t imagine that he would have had a chance with no real advance warning.”

The report says that a Cal Fire captain noticed the twister near Buenaventura, looking north from Land Park, at 7:38 p.m. One minute later was when Stoke was driving along that road, and at 7:40 p.m. was when his “mayday” call went out.

“It’s pretty chilling when you look at the narrative,” said Jonathan Cox, a Cal Fire battalion chief who has read the report. “How quickly this tornado went from being dangerous to being just extreme and overwhelming was astounding. It’s something we’ve never seen before.”

At the time Stoke died, the Carr Fire had already burned 29,000 acres, dozens of homes and sent thousands of people fleeing for their lives. As of Wednesday evening, the blaze had destroyed 1,077 homes and charred 214,527 acres. It was 69 percent contained.

The Green Sheet also details the death that same evening of 81-year-old contract bulldozer operator Don Ray Smith of Pollock Pines (El Dorado County), and the harrowing escapes of fire crews and other dozer operators in the area where Stoke died.

Smith was helping cut a fire line near Spring Creek Reservoir at around 5:45 p.m. when flames surrounded him, according to the report. He radioed back that he couldn’t make it back to where he’d departed “because he was cut off by the fire, and he would push down instead,” the report said, and between 5:46 and 5:50 p.m. he requested water drops from firefighting aircraft and said he was “attempting to make a safety zone.”

Four Cal Fire helicopters began dumping water at 5:50 p.m. through heavy smoke into the location where they thought Smith was. The blaze was too intense to send in ground crews right away, the report said, and at 6:10 p.m. crew leaders told their division supervisor that Smith had been burned over.

The flames backed off enough by 7 p.m. for a crew to head down the fire line and confirm that Smith was dead.

The report does not assess blame, but it does offer cautions for the future — such as fleeing fire tornadoes upon sight.

Cox said the advice is wise, and the grief over the death of colleagues is nearly unfathomable. The probability of the future is that things will remain grim.

“It’s the trend we have now — larger, more damaging fires, and more and more of them,” he said. “The conditions are unrelenting.” </s> CHICAGO — Eight people, including six children, were killed when a fire broke out early Sunday at a Chicago apartment, officials say.

Two other people were hospitalized in very critical condition, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said. At least one firefighter was injured and was hospitalized in good condition.

Officials have not released the ages of the victims, but fire Commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters that one of the children who was killed was an infant.

“We have not had this in many, many, many years — this amount of fatalities and injuries in one location,” Santiago said.

Officials say firefighters were called around 4 a.m. to the fire in the city’s Little Village neighborhood. At least two buildings caught fire, one of them a coach house. The cause of the blaze hasn’t been determined.

Merritt said those killed were all from the same residence. He said investigators have not found working smoke detectors. </s> (CNN) — At least 67 people have been killed and 40 injured after a fire tore through apartment buildings and chemical warehouses in a historic part of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, according to Mohammed Nurul Islam, a senior official with the Home Affairs Ministry.

The latest such deadly blaze in the south Asian nation broke out Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET) in Dhaka's Chawkbazar area, a district in old Dhaka with sprawling narrow streets and densely-packed buildings.

Police and fire officials revised down the death toll to 67 on Friday down from 78 on Thursday. Rasem Shikdar, officer with the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense, said there were "around 40 people" injured in the fire.

Inspector Morad Dul Islam with the Chawkbazar police said 45 bodies have been identified.

Throughout the night, firefighters battled the blaze, which is believed to have started when a fuel cylinder stored in a car exploded. </s> Bangladesh fire LIVE Updates: At least 70 people were killed Thursday in a fire that swept a centuries-old area of Bangladesh capital Dhaka. The fire initially broke out at a chemical warehouse on the ground floor of a four-storey building named Hazi Wahed Mansion behind a mosque in Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar area and quickly spread to nearby buildings.

The death toll from last night jumped to 70 Thursday morning. “The number could rise further as search is continuing,” Reuters quoted Julfikar Rahman, a director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence as saying. </s> DHAKA, Bangladesh —At least 19 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a fire broke out in a commercial highrise building in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, the fire brigade said Thursday.

The fire erupted at the 19-story Faruk Rupayan Tower in Dhaka's northern Babani area, Fire Service and Civil Defense department official Rasel Sikder said.

The bodies of 13 people have been recovered from the scene, Abdus Samad Azad, another official at the department, told dpa by phone. Six others died in hospitals.

The bodies were at different hospitals in the city, he added. </s> Bangladesh fire kills more than 80, injures 50 in capital Dhaka

A devastating fire has raced through a centuries-old neighbourhood in Bangladesh's capital and killed at least 81 people, according to officials and witnesses.

About 50 other people were injured in the fire in the Chawkbazar area of Dhaka, which started on Wednesday and took 10 hours to bring under control.

The blaze started in one building and quickly spread in the district, which dates back 400 years to the Mughal era.

Mahfuz Riben, a control room official of the Fire Service and Civil Defence in Dhaka, said many of the victims had been trapped inside buildings.

"Our teams are working there, but many of the recovered bodies are beyond recognition," he said.

"Our people are using body bags to send them to the hospital morgue. This is a very difficult situation."

Another control room official, Russel Shikder, said 81 bodies had been recovered.

Julfikar Rahman, a director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence, said firefighters struggled to find adequate water supplies and had to draw water from a nearby mosque to fight the blaze.

The condition of some of the injured people was "critical", said Samanta Lal Sen, head of a burn unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

He said at least nine of the critically injured people were being treated in his unit.

Chawkbazar is crammed with buildings separated by narrow alleys. The blaze spread quickly between the buildings, some of which house chemicals and plastic.

Most buildings are used both for residential and commercial purposes, despite warnings of the potential for high fatalities from fires after a blaze killed at least 123 people in 2010.

Authorities had promised to bring the buildings into line with regulations and remove chemical warehouses from the residential buildings.

Witnesses told local TV stations that many gas cylinders stored in the buildings continued to explode one after another. They said the fire also set off explosions in the fuel tanks of vehicles stuck in traffic in front of the buildings.

Building safety regulations are rarely followed in Bangladesh, and such accidents kill hundreds of people every year.

The Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013 killed more than 1,100 workers and a fire in a garment factory in 2012 killed 112 people.
A house fire in Memphis kills at least 11 people.