A woman and her four children were killed when a massive fire ripped through their home in northwestern Massachusetts early Saturday morning.
Two family members, an adult and a child, escaped the blaze, which broke out in the single-family home at about 12:45 a.m. in the small town of Warwick, the state fire marshal's office said.
Officials said the home was fully engulfed by the time they arrived and were initially told that everyone inside the home had been accounted for, Fox 25 Boston reported.
At a news conference Saturday afternoon, town officials said the bodies of the mother and the four children were located inside the destroyed home, the station reported.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but officials believe the origin was a wood stove in the kitchen and they think it was accidental, according to the station.
Our community has suffered a great loss," Warwick Town Coordinator David Young said at the news conference, according to the Westford Patch local news website. "(It's) a huge blow to our spirit."
There are no fire hydrants in the community of about 800 people, and water needed to be brought in from about a half mile away.
Officials said there little was left of the home after the fire. At least 16 fire departments from the area helped battle the blaze.
Three of the children who were killed attended public schools in the small Franklin County community.
Click for more from Fox 25 Boston.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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