SHAMOKIN -- A small girl brought a bouquet of flowers and a heart-shaped balloon to a home on South Rock Street in Shamokin, hours after a young teen girl died there.
Melissa Pangburn, 13, lived with her family at the home and investigators say a fire broke out around 11 a.m. Tuesday in that home and spread to neighboring row homes.
Fire crews found Pangburn's body in the attic area of her house.
The coroner said she died from carbon monoxide.
"She was really nice and pretty. She was really good at singing," said Amber Libby, one of Melissa's best friends. Libby said she spent the day crying after learning her friend had died.
"We're like sisters, all three of us, we're just always hanging out together, we're always at lunch together, we just do everything together," said Madison Collins, another good friend.
Melissa, known as "Missy," was a seventh grader at Shamokin Area Junior Senior High School.
That is where she would have been at the time of the fire, but school was closed for the day because of weather concerns.
Missy's best friends said they do not know how they will go on without her.
"I just hope a lot of people don't come up to me with questions and stuff," said Libby.
"I just, I wish she was here, I just can't picture life without her," said Collins.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, though investigators say it looks accidental.
Grief counselors will be on hand for rescue crews who responded to the blaze and for students in the Shamokin Area School District.
That fire was just across the street from the Friendship Engine and Hose Company in Shamokin