A fire at a mobile home in a rundown trailer park in southeastern Texas killed a couple and their three young children early Monday, authorities said.
The fire was reported around midnight Sunday, the Brazoria County fire department said. A couple and their three children, ages 1, 4 and 7, were killed, officials said.
The cause of the blaze was under investigation but it did not appear to be suspicious, Brazoria County Fire Marshal Al Priselac said. He said a bedroom was the focus of the investigation.
A neighbor smelled smoke and called the fire department. A deputy arrived about the same time as the fire department, but couldn't get inside the trailer, Priselac said. The mobile home appeared largely intact but had internal damage, much of it from smoke, Priselac said.
"There may have been one (smoke detector), whether it was working or not we are not sure due to the extent of the fire damage in that area," Priselac said.
Autopsies on the victims were ordered, Priselac said. Identities of the victims were not immediately released but the adult victims were a 33-year-old man and his 26-year-old wife, authorities said.
The family's home was among 50 trailers in Ashley Oaks, a largely Hispanic community near Alvin, about 30 miles south of Houston.
Elsewhere, a house fire deemed suspicious in Sioux City, Iowa, killed two children Sunday, authorities said. Police spokesman Marti Reilly says authorities believe the children lived in the home, but he had no information on whether anyone else was in the house at the time.