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Body of Teen Recovered from Burned-out Home in Scranton

SCRANTON, Pa. — Emergency crews found the body of a boy missing after a fire in his home early Thursday morning. He was identified by the Lackawanna Count...

SCRANTON, Pa. -- Emergency crews found the body of a boy missing after a fire in his home early Thursday morning.

He was identified by the Lackawanna County coroner as 13-year-old Brandin Churmblo.

The fire started around 5 a.m. in the double-block home on Wayne Avenue in Scranton.

"Too fast," said neighbor Torray Smith. "It happened literally too fast."

As smoke and flames shot through the house, neighbors heard a mother's cries for help.

"I went to bang on the wall to let her know and by the time I came outside to call 911, she was outside screaming and yelling and said her son was trapped in the house, so he never got out."

One man even broke a window trying to save the 13-year-old boy who was still inside.

"As soon as we kicked the window out, kicked the door in, smoke started pouring out, pieces of the roof coming down, I start crawling in there and I passed out," Angel Colon said.

Even the firefighters were pulled out of the home because it was too dangerous.

"I had two guys actually enter into a mayday situation because they fell through floors themselves," said Deputy Fire Chief Al Lucas.

Once the flames were out, the search was on.

Emergency crews spent hours sifting through the rubble trying to find the 13-year-old boy.

Neighbors stood vigil, waiting and hoping for good news, but that news never came.

"It took a long time but ultimately we did recover a male victim. He was in the kitchen," said Lucas.

"I tried my best. I'm a father of three kids. There's nothing I could do to save him. I tried my best."

The boy was a student at Northeast Intermediate School in Scranton. The school district says everyone is heartbroken, and that grief counselors will be in school for the rest of the week.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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