4 children die in house fire outside Atlanta

CONYERS, Ga. - Authorities outside Atlanta say four children, including an infant, are dead after rescuers tried to save them from a house fire.

The fire burned late Tuesday night at a duplex in Conyers, east of Atlanta.

Another child, who is 6, was thrown by his mother from a second-floor window, Glenn Allen, a spokesman for Georgia's fire commissioner, told The Associated Press. The child injured his shoulder in the fall but survived.

"It saved his life," Allen said of the mother's actions.

The mother was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta with second- and third-degree burns, Allen said.

Seven people were in the home: a grandmother, the mother and five children, Allen said. The children who died were ages 9, 7, 3 and eight months, Conyers police Major Mike Waters told reporters.

They were in one unit of a two-story duplex in the town about 25 miles east of Atlanta. The other unit of the duplex was vacant, Allen said.

Officers arrived on the scene quickly after the fire was reported around 11 p.m. and tried unsuccessfully to put it out with handheld fire extinguishers, Conyers Police Chief Gene Wilson told WXIA-TV.

By the time firefighters arrive, the home was fully engulfed by flames, said Dan Morgan, chief of Rockdale County Fire and Rescue.

"They had flames coming out at least two windows, one on the back side, and they entered the home, went upstairs and extinguished the fire while another crew retrieved the children and brought them out to try to revive them," Morgan told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

There was no indication as to what caused the blaze, Allen said before daybreak Wednesday. He said fire investigators planned to enter the structure at first light and try to find a cause.