UNITY, Maine (AP) -- As neighbors and family friends wept, the bodies of three 7-year-old triplets were pulled from the charred wreckage of their home.
The boys were identified as Josh, Marcus and Brydon Freyer. Carmen Freyer, 28, the boys' mother, was hospitalized in good condition after escaping with her 2-year-old daughter.Neighbor Todd Converse helped save the daughter after hearing Freyer calling for help Wednesday afternoon. He ran into a smoke-filled, glass-enclosed porch in the back of the house.
"I saw two little feet and I grabbed her," he said. The diaper-clad child was covered with soot, he said. As rescuers led Freyer away, she looked back at her home and repeatedly screamed "I love you."
Two neighbors sobbed and held each other while watching the house burn: Danielle Creasy, who said she baby-sat the triplets, and family friend Tammy Knowlton.
Teachers from Unity Elementary School, where the triplets were enrolled in a special-education program, watched silently. Neighbors said the boys' father, Kurt Freyer, was out of state driving a tractor-trailer.
Firefighters also were mourning the loss of a comrade who collapsed at the scene of the blaze and later died, said Stephen McCausland of the Maine Public Safety Department.
Robert M. Jones, 48, the Waldo County Sheriff, was pronounced dead at MaineGeneral Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said. Jones used to be chief of the Unity fire department.
State fire marshals were expected to investigate the blaze.