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Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 4:30 PM UTC

Coroner: 5 dead in overnight fire in eastern Ky.

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Topics: From the Wires,

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An early morning blaze at a home in rural eastern Kentucky killed four children and an adult Wednesday.

Pike County Coroner Russell Roberts and Kentucky State Police Trooper Tony Watts confirmed the deaths to The Associated Press, but neither could give names or ages. Watts said one injured person was taken to the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington with injuries sustained in the fire.

Watts said the fire began just after 2:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Jonancy community of Pike County.

Pike County Emergency Management Coordinator Doug Tackett said the fire happened in a rural area of Pike County, about three hours southeast of Lexington in the eastern coal field area of the state. Tackett said three fire departments responded to the fire, but he had no other information.

Firefighters at the scene of the small home were waiting for the remaining structure to cool off before going inside to investigate.

Darrell Compton, chief of the Shelby Valley Volunteer Fire Department, said the bodies of the victims remained inside the home late Wednesday morning.

“We’re still doing the overhaul and the cooling of the structure to get in there and do that,” Compton said.

Investigators with the state fire marshal’s office were at the scene.

No officials could recall a similar deadly blaze in Kentucky since 10 people, including six children, were killed in a house fire in Bardstown in February 2007.

“It’s probably been the worst we’ve had in this area in a long, long time,” Watts said.

County Judge-Executive spokesman Brandon Roberts said there’s been no similar fatal fire in the county in recent years.

“I can’t remember a whole family perishing in a fire in my lifetime,” Roberts said. “It’s just, ‘Oh God.’”

______

Associated Press Writers Dylan Lovan and Brett Barrouquere contributed to this report from Louisville.

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