Community members mourning after Greeley, KS house fire kills 2 adults, 1 child

By Emily Rittman

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    GREELEY, Kansas (KCTV) — Neighbors woke to a large house fire Wednesday morning.

They feared for the safety of the family who lived inside the engulfed home in the small town of Greeley, Kansas.

Wednesday afternoon investigators confirmed two adults and a child died in the morning house fire.

Parents and grandparents told KCTV5 News several children went outside to wait for their school bus and saw the flames around 7:00 a.m. near Mitchell Avenue and Main Street in Greeley. The children each ran back to their homes to tell their parents who then called 911.

Several neighbors then ran toward the burning home hoping that no one was inside at the time.

“I joined the other two neighbors banging on the house and windows trying to get some response,” Douglas Hollman said. “The house was too engulfed for us to go in.”

Firefighters arrived to find flames on both the first and second floor of the home.

“The whole house was in flames,” neighbor Judi Hoffman said. “You could see flames everywhere. It was sad, really sad.”

After firefighters extinguished the fire, they discovered two adults and a child under the age of five had died.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office is assisting in the investigation into the cause of the fire. Olathe firefighters worked to shore up the home by using support braces to try to prevent a collapse from the extensive damage to the home.

“It is heart wrenching,” Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Wesley McClain said. “It’s sad to give the report back to those loved ones. It is tragic.”

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Office has not released the names of the victims.

“To hear the whole family is gone really breaks my heart,” Hollman said. “I’ll be doing some serious praying tonight.”

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