AURORA — Two children died in an overnight house fire and four others remained hospitalized in critical condition Thursday morning, Aurora Fire Rescue officials said.

Nine people — two adults and seven children — were inside the house in the 2800 block of South Oakland Circle when the fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Dawn Small with Aurora Fire Rescue.

All nine were taken to area hospitals, and two of the children, a 2-year-old and a 9-year-old, died at a hospital, Small said. One other child and two adults were treated and released. It wasn’t immediately clear whether all were related.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation Thursday, officials said.

Many neighborhood residents were just waking up to the news Thursday morning, and several said they were heartbroken to see what happened to the family. They said the children living in that house could be seen playing in the front yard and along the street most days.

Neighbor Nan Page-Stevens said her dog woke her up at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday as the street was being flooded with emergency lights.

She said she knew the family in passing, and couldn’t imagine what they might be going through.

“No matter the situation, no one deserves to go through something so unspeakable like this, especially with the babies,” Page-Stevens said of the two children who died.

Page-Stevens was consoling the mother, Tiffany Lee, who was at the house Thursday morning.

The house did not appear damaged from the front, but Page-Stevens said the homes in the neighborhood were designed with the bedrooms in the back, so any damage there wouldn’t be able to be seen from the street.

Multiple fire rescue trucks responded to the fire due to the large number of people who were inside. An Aurora fire investigations trailer and two fire pickup trucks remained at the scene Thursday morning.

“Obviously it’s really hectic, you know, there’s nine patients of which, you know, a majority of them were children,” said Andrew Logan, an Aurora Fire Rescue spokesperson, when asked to describe the scene Wednesday night.

A dog was also rescued from the house.

Someone left two small vases filled with roses in front of the house — memorials to the two children lost in the fire, Page-Stevens said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated 4 p.m. Sept. 22, 2023: This story has been updated to correct the age of the youngest victim. The girl’s mother says she was 2.

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