Girl Dies After St. Paul Fire, 5 Others Remain Hospitalized

ST. PAUL, MN — A St. Paul father is grieving after his eldest daughter died from injuries sustained in a house fire that also left his wife and five other children hospitalized.

Pacheng Vang wrote on GoFundMe:"Doctor gave me a very emotional news, that my 3 [year old] will not able to make it in the next 24 hr," and that "Mom also in high risk."

Vang said he was at work when the fire ignited.

Firefighters responded in under four minutes to the home on the 1200 block of Arkwright Street North at about 1:30 a.m. They entered the burning house and found seven unconscious people on the main level, according to officials.

Crews pulled their bodies from the home, and paramedics performed CPR on all of them before they were hospitalized.

St. Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks thanked the responders during a news conference on Wednesday, stating they're "the reason these individuals have a chance right now," including one firefighter who saved three of the six children.

"You show up on scene in a house where visibility is nil. You can't see anything," Inks detailed. "This individual went in, quickly found one child, pulled the child out, went back in, found another child, pulled that child out, and then went back in a third time. And found another child. And pulled that child out. And began doing medical CPR on that child."

Inks added that it was "A very traumatic event for our folks," stating that "we're human beings and it's very difficult to do a lot of times, to maintain composure and to maintain the reason we're there."

The fire was extinguished after about 30 minutes.