VESTAL, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities have released the names of the four family members who were killed when an early-morning fire tore through their upstate New York home.
The Broome County emergency services office had identified the victims of Thursday’s blaze as 33-year-old Nicole Tarbox and three of her children: 3-year-old Mariah, 9-year-old Mya and 13-year-old Evyn.
Officials say the fire is believed to have started around 2 a.m. in the kitchen of the family’s 2½-story home in the town of Vestal, just west of Binghamton. Fire investigators say the home had working smoke detectors.
Tarbox’s 15-year-old son, Shawn, was awakened by the home’s fire alarm and escaped through a window, then ran to a neighbor’s for help. Officials say his father wasn’t at home when the fire broke out.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
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