TAMHILL COUNTY, OR (KOIN/CNN) – Officials say a woman and her 8-year-old daughter were killed in a house fire, as the mom tried to save her little girl, who was trying to rescue the family’s puppies.
The mother and grandmother of the two victims, Patty Krull, says she’ll remember them both as heroes.
Krull says she, her husband and her daughter Honey Cosgrove were asleep inside their mobile home Tuesday when a fire broke out.
Cosgrove’s five children, the youngest of whom was 8-year-old Nevaeh Applegate, were asleep inside a different motor home nearby.
"Her [Cosgrove's] 11-year old-ran in saying there was a fire. We called 911. My husband took the fire extinguishers and went out. He had the fire what looked like under control,” Krull said.
But when Cosgrove ran outside to figure out what was going on, the mother realized four of her children were safely outside, but little Nevaeh wasn’t.
Krull says Nevaeh ran back into the burning motor home to save the puppies the family was caring for, and Cosgrove went after her daughter. The four other children witnessed their sister and mother running into the burning home.
"Her sister had her at the doorway and said, 'Go Nevaeh.' Nevaeh turned and said, ‘The puppies!’ And [she] didn't leave. She went after the puppies, and her mother went after her,” Krull said.
That’s when the fire engulfed the motor home, taking both Nevaeh and her mother’s lives.
Krull says the two are her heroes.
"What I know is that my daughter gave her life to save her child. Her child went back to save the lives of puppies. They acted out of love for what was their family,” Krull said.
Nevaeh was a week away from celebrating her 9th birthday at the time of her death.
Fire investigators say they believe the fire was not suspicious and that a heat source was too close to flammable material.
Copyright 2017 KOIN, Patty Krull via CNN. All rights reserved.
