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[h=4]'As tragic as it gets': Town reeling after fatal fire[/h]Iowa mother, three children die of smoke inhalation in fire likely caused by space heater.
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Victims of a fatal house fire early Sunday morning, Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found dead in the upstairs master bedroom by firefighters. Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.(Photo: Rodney White/The Register)
BOXHOLM, Iowa<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— On weekends,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Amber Sorenson and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>her three children<span style="color: Red;">*</span>would cuddle<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>family's master bedroom for slumber parties.
The children<span style="color: Red;">*</span>watched<span style="color: Red;">*</span>movies and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>snacked<span style="color: Red;">*</span>with Mom<span style="color: Red;">*</span>while Dad, John<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sorenson, worked overnights guarding inmates 30 minutes away at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility.
Sometimes the girls,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Riley, 9, and Autumn, 6, tried<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to paint their younger brother's nails. Four-year-old<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Brayden<span style="color: Red;">*</span>always protested.
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"He'd giggle and they'd say, 'We're going to paint your nails,'" Chris Maguire, a family friend who's become like an "adopted daughter,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said on Monday. "And he'd say, 'No, Sissy!' He didn't want two little girls to paint his nails."
Volunteer firefighters found the bodies of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Amber Sorenson, 27, and the three children<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in that bedroom<span style="color: Red;">*</span>shortly before flames engulfed the house early Sunday morning, Amber's mother, Jean Kraft,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>told The Des Moines Register. Also in the bedroom was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the family<span style="color: Red;">*</span>dog,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>mixed poodle named Bear.
Ceiling to floor icicles formed from intense cold and water during a deadly house fire in Bowholm shown Monday Jan 18, 2016. A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children. Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
Ceiling to floor icicles formed from intense cold and water during a deadly house fire in Bowholm shown Monday Jan 18, 2016. A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children. Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.
Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
Ceiling to floor icicles formed from intense cold and water during a deadly house fire in Bowholm shown Monday Jan 18, 2016. A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children. Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
A space heater may be the cause of a Sunday Jan 17, 2016, house fire in Boxholm that claimed the lives of a young mother and her three children shown here Monday Jan. 18, 2016.Victims Amber Sorenson, 27, and her children Riley, 9, Autumn, 6, and Brayden, 4, were found in the upstairs master bedroom.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodney White/The Register
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Kraft and Maguire said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>volunteer firefighter who<span style="color: Red;">*</span>helped carry their bodies out of the house told them<span style="color: Red;">*</span>all four appeared to have been sleeping when they died of smoke inhalation. Amber would have done anything to save her children if she could, Maguire said.
A preliminary investigation showed the fatal fire<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was caused by a space heater in a screened-in porch<span style="color: Red;">*</span>where the family kept<span style="color: Red;">*</span>rabbits at the rear of the home, Boxholm fire chief Dave Huffman said Monday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The state fire marshal is still investigating the fire. Just before noon, a sheriff's official was flying a drone over the remains, while yellow tape was strung around the still-smoldering home.
The fire was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reported around 12:45 a.m. Sunday, though it was around 2:15 a.m. before the bodies were recovered.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The frigid cold<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hampered the response from the nine area fire departments that fought the fire.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Water pumps on fire trucks and also hydrants froze in the cold, Huffman said on Sunday.
The deaths have resonated across this tiny Boone County town of 200 and beyond. As of 8<span style="color: Red;">*</span>p.m. ET Monday, a GoFundMe page that was set up to help<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the family<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had received more than<span style="color: Red;">*</span>$35,000 in donations. John Sorenson, who married Amber five years ago, was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at work when the fire started. He's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reeling from the loss, Maguire said
"He lost everything," she said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"He came home with a uniform on and had nothing. No clothes, no shoes, no family."
The remains of a house fire in Boxholm, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. A woman and her three children died in the fire.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Rachel Mummey/The Register)
The Sorenson children all attended Dayton Elementary School in nearby Dayton. Riley was a fourth-grader, Autumn a kindergartner and Brayden a half-day pre-kindergartner, said Rich Stoffers, superintendent of the Southeast Webster-Grand School District.
A crisis response team met Sunday, and counselors from other district schools and the Heartland Area Education Agency, along with local pastors, were at the elementary school Monday morning to meet with students, teachers and faculty, Stoffers said. The Sorenson family has been in the school district for many decades, and the deaths have affected the whole community, he said. John Sorenson graduated from the district's high school.
Teachers talked to their classes about the deaths and allowed students to take a break to speak with counselors.
"We wanted the students to know it's OK to be sad and to cry," Stoffers said. "We know this is not a one-day thing." Counselors will be available at the schools for several days.
"I have been in education for 39 years, and this as<span style="color: Red;">*</span>tragic as it gets," Stoffers said. "Losing three students is a first."
Standing outside of the home's frozen shell on Monday, Kraft spoke about the last time she saw her grandchildren while babysitting at the home on New Year's Eve so Amber and John could go out. They made pizza and watched TV. She was thankful for the support from Boxholm residents, who have turned the town's United Methodist Church, just blocks from the house, into a makeshift base<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to help the family.
"It's just unreal," she said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"They opened up a church<span style="color: Red;">*</span>we don't even belong to, bringing food and and staying by us."
Mo Kraft, Amber's sister, was also visiting the scene for the first time. She teared up talking about her<span style="color: Red;">*</span>sister,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who worked at Louis Dreyfus Commodities in Grand Junction and would have had a birthday later this month.
"She was the most loving and caring person ever," she said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"She would do anything for anybody."
Follow Grant Rodgers<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Patt Johnson<span style="color: Red;">*</span>on Twitter:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>@GrantMRodgers and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>@newbiz_dmreg
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