EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill.—Five siblings under the age of 10 died early Friday when a fire swept through their apartment in southwestern Illinois, and officials were investigating whether they had been left alone.
Fire crews were called to the building in East St. Louis, which is just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, before 3 a.m. and reported finding two children already dead inside a bedroom. The three other children were unconscious on the kitchen floor, and two of them were pronounced dead once they were taken outside, according to East St. Louis Assistant Fire Chief George McClellan.
