Mom, 6 Kids Critical After St. Paul House Fire

ST. PAUL, MN — A mother and her six children were hospitalized and in critical condition early Wednesday morning after their St. Paul house caught on fire.

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 that 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 completely extinguished after about 2 hours and 30 minutes.