Bronx Fire Kills 3 Boys; Mother Was Burning Candles After Lights Cut Off

Three young boys, all under the age of five, died in a fire that erupted inside a Bronx apartment on Friday night, CNN reported. The New York Police Department is investigating the cause of the blaze.

The three boys were brothers named Elijah Artis, 5, Jeremiah Artis, 2 and four-month-old Michael Turner were declared dead on arrival at Lincoln Medical Center, according to police officials, CNN reported.

A tenant from the building, Valerie Frazier, 47 said she could hear the boys playing before the fire erupted.

"I heard (the children) playing 10 minutes before everyone started screaming," Frazier told The Daily News. "Everybody heard them screaming for help. It's so sad they had to burn to death."

The mother and two sisters aged four-years-old and the other only four-months-old, were being treated for smoke inhalation, according to CNN. Three other people were injured and also taken to the hospital.

Tashika Turner, the mother of the three boys, had been using candles because Con Edison has turned off the electricity to the apartment due to unpaid bills, according to CNN.

Neighbors told authorities they found Turner lying on the ground outside screaming that her "babies are dead" as the apartment fire blazed on, The Daily News reported.

According to residents who witnessed the scene, another neighbor named William Sands climbed up the fire escape and took the two daughters, The Daily News reported.

According to fire department spokesperson Danny Glover, the fire broke out in a six-story apartment building on West 165th St. near Anderson Avenue in the Bronx around 8 p.m. and was declared "under control" around 9:30 p.m., CNN reported.

The building that caught fire was only a half mile from Yankee Stadium, and only 180 feet from a building on Woodycrest that caught fire in March 2007, killing a total of 10 people, nine of which were children, CNN reported.