BELLEVILLE, Ill. – A family is grieving after an early morning fire claimed the lives of three people inside a Belleville home.
Neighbors could see the flames from down the street.
“I ran down initially, and the heat from the fire basically kept me from going,” neighbor Danny Deppers said.
Deppers lives a few houses down and woke up just before 5:30 a.m. Monday to find his neighbor’s home on fire.
“I went home and hurried up finishing getting dressed and come back down, and by that time the fire department was here, thank God,” he said.
Belleville firefighters pulled one person out of the fire. Three other family members got out on their own.
Three men did not make it out, according to the fire department. Crews used a cadaver dog to help find them.
“We thought we would use that resource to help narrow down where that person might be and to help keep our guys safe from searching in an unstable structure,” Chief Stephanie Mills said.
St. Clair County Coroner say the ages of the victims are 79, 39, and 20 years old. The 79-year-old and the 39-year-old are related. The third man also lived in the home.
Reality hasn’t set in yet for Deppers, but he says it is heartbreaking.
“We’ve all lived here for 40 years. They’re a good family, and it’s sad what happened, happened. Because they’re good people,” he said.