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Neighbors in Laflin Stunned by Death of Two Boys

LAFLIN — Neighbors in the community where two young boys didn’t make it out after a fire are shocked by what happened Wednesday night. Neighbors sai...

LAFLIN -- Neighbors in the community where two young boys didn't make it out after a fire are shocked by what happened Wednesday night.

Neighbors said Susan Major lived in this home at on Oakwood Drive in Laflin with her three sons. Apparently, she wasn't home at the time of the fire.

As state police continue to search for a man they call a "person of interest."

Surrounding this deadly fire, a neighborhood is trying to come to grips thinking about those two young boys who didn't make it out of their burning home.

Bikes on the side of 60 Oakwood Drive in Laflin are a visual reminder to neighbors of the young boys who called this place home.

"It's terrible," said Nicole Ferentino. "We have two children of our own it's just devastating news."

That devastating news -- a 16-year-old boy and his 12-year-old brother both found dead inside their home after it was hit by fire.

"I actually stopped my car because I couldn't believe how terrible it is. It's awful," Ferentino said.

Neighbors say Susan Major lived there with her three sons. One survived: an 8-year-old boy who was last reported in critical condition.

Neighbors Newswatch 16 talked with both on and off camera tell us probably the most troubling thing about this fire is that a lot of them didn't know what was happening in this area. There weren't huge flames, not a lot of smoke. They really didn't realize what was taking place until fire crews showed up around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.

"We weren't even aware of anything. We were here watching TV," Marie Woytowich said.

Woytowich says a Laflin firefighter and friend who's actually vacationing in Cancun right now got an alert on his cell phone and called her family to see if they were OK.

"I said, 'Oh, my God. It's our next-door neighbors. Bellanca's house is on fire," Woytowich recalled.

Woytowich has lived on this block for 50 years.

"This is really a tragedy; it's so unfortunate," she said. "You could see if it was in the middle of the night or something like that. This is earlier in the evening and there's a lot of people around, even if the kids yelled out, someone could have come and helped them."

Now everyone is just hoping to hear the answer to that one question -- how did this all start?

Autopsies on the victims are planned for Thursday afternoon.

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