A Mar­aval fam­i­ly, along with their friends and neigh­bours in Rook­ery Nook, Mar­aval, has been plunged in­to mourn­ing to­day, fol­low­ing the ghast­ly news that three chil­dren per­ished in a fire at their home.

Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Arnold Bris­to con­firmed in a brief­ing with me­dia per­son­nel on the scene, that the chil­dren had burnt to death.

Dead are 17-year-old Ezekiel Burke, 6-year-old Kate Burke, and 3-year-old Kay­don Burke.

Oth­er Burke chil­dren man­aged to sur­vive the ter­ri­ble or­deal: Troy Burke, Den­ni­cia Burke and Sarah Burke es­caped, along with an­oth­er young­ster who was in the house at the time the fire broke out, Genevieve Ro­driguez.  They re­port­ed­ly had been res­cued by neigh­bours and the lo­cal dou­bles ven­dor, who were first re­spon­ders on the scene.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the chil­dren’s fa­ther re­ceived mi­nor in­juries while at­tempt­ing to res­cue his chil­dren from the in­fer­no that had en­gulfed his home.  He was treat­ed for his in­juries at hos­pi­tal.

In ad­di­tion, one fire of­fi­cer re­ceived mi­nor in­juries while fight­ing the fire this morn­ing.  CFO Bris­to con­firmed that he was treat­ed for his in­juries at hos­pi­tal.

Dra­mat­ic videos be­gan shar­ing on so­cial me­dia, ear­ly this morn­ing, show­ing sev­er­al per­sons at­tempt­ing to res­cue the three chil­dren who were still trapped in the house at Rook­ery Nook in Mar­aval, af­ter a fire broke out there.

When fire of­fi­cers fi­nal­ly got the fire un­der con­trol and went in­to the build­ing, the body of a 17-year-old male was found in the gallery of house. The area re­port­ed­ly was sur­round­ed with bur­glar-proof­ing, and it is be­lieved that he was un­able to es­cape. That vic­tim has been iden­ti­fied as Ezekiel Burke.

Fire fight­ers al­so dis­cov­ered the body of a three-year-old male in one of the front rooms, who has been iden­ti­fied as Kay­don Burke.  To the back of the house, they found the body of a six-year-old fe­male, who has since been iden­ti­fied as Kate Burke.

An in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been trig­gered and fire of­fi­cers are hop­ing to de­ter­mine and con­firm soon, ex­act­ly what had caused the fire that led to the chil­dren’s deaths.