2 children, aged 2, 4, killed in house fire near Beersheba

Two children were killed in a fire that broke out on Sunday morning in their home in the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva, near Beersheba.

The two victims, a two-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy, were identified as siblings Hoor and Sultan Abu Anza.

According to preliminary findings, the siblings were playing inside the house alone with the door locked. To rescue them from the house, one of the neighbors had to break one of the outer walls, according to KAN.

They were treated at the scene by Magen David Adom and then evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba in critical condition.

Medical teams attempted to resuscitate the children but they died shortly after arriving at the hospital. A spokeswoman for Soroka confirmed that “unfortunately, after prolonged resuscitation attempts, they were pronounced dead.”

Smoke inhalation and burns

“When we arrived at the scene, we saw the girl without a pulse and not breathing, suffering from smoke inhalation and burns on her body,” MDA medics Yosef Noam Basharim and Lidor Krauny said. “We immediately began to perform resuscitation, which included massages, ventilation and giving medications. We put her in an MDA intensive care vehicle and evacuated her to the hospital in critical condition while continuing the resuscitation operations.”

Fire and Rescue Services carried out searches to ensure no other people were trapped in the building.

Local police officers in cooperation with a professional fire investigator began an investigation to determine the circumstances and the causes of the fire. They conducted scans and collected evidence from the scene of the incident.

“During a fire, children are the most vulnerable population. They cannot rescue themselves,” Orly Silbinger, CEO of the Beterem organization for children’s safety said. “I call on parents – don’t tell me it won’t happen. A smoke detector saves lives. It will not prevent the fire, but it will warn them ahead of time, will allow a quick rescue of the children and a call to the rescue forces.”

According to Beterem’s data, 26 children have died as a result of fires since 2018, with 58% of them, including Sunday’s incident, being under the age of four.