Blaze kills 4 children at their residence

The fire was contained in the one apartment, though others had smoke damage.
HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) -- Four children were killed when an apartment they lived in became engulfed in flames.
Garnett Moss, the children's great-uncle, said he didn't know where the parents were when the fire broke out Friday. The victims, his niece's children, were two boys, Donrico Moss, 6, and Marquis Reed, 9, and two girls, Marlasha Reed, 8, and Marquinda Reed, 9.
"They were such good children. It's so hard," said Moss, 53, his voice breaking as he stared at the brick apartment building from across the street.
People ran through the building yelling for residents of the six units to get out and knocking on their doors, including a passing driver who saw smoke and ran in. Witnesses say a man rescued two other siblings from the apartment.
"I could see the flames everywhere, just crawling up the building," said neighbor Tiffany Davis, 23, who was awakened by the pounding.
Quick response
Fire officials got a 911 call shortly after midnight. Neighbors pounded on the doors of a fire station a block from the burning building, and firefighters arrived at the scene in three minutes.
"I need a life squad, a fire truck. It's a fire and there's babies in the apartment. There's fire rolling up out of the windows," an unidentified person outside the building said in the taped call.
Fire Chief Joe Schutte said firefighters saw the people pounding on the station as they headed to the apartment.
"When you have a fire scene with a lot of flames and a lot of smoke, it's a scary thing, and I'm sure three minutes seemed like 30," he said.
Deputy Fire Chief Steve Dawson said Friday afternoon that officials have not determined the cause of the fire, although they think it began in the bedroom of the children's mother, 26-year-old Asia Moss.
Dawson said the father of two of the children, Joe Singletary, was home when Moss left.
"She woke him to tell him she was going to the store," Dawson said.
Moss then started walking to her grandmother's house nearby to get a ride, Dawson said. She returned when she was alerted by the commotion around her apartment building.
Dawson said firefighters don't know who rescued two of the children from the burning apartment, although they think a passing driver, Hamilton resident Paul Paul, was able to help at least one of them to safety.
"We are also pretty sure that he was able to assist at least one of the children down the hallway and move that child down the stairs, and from there it gets kind of cloudy," Dawson said.
Paul was being treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation.
The apartment was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, Assistant Fire Chief Pete Trautwine said.
Autopsies were being done, but the coroner said the four victims apparently died from inhaling smoke.