LEHIGHTON -- It was a tragic Friday afternoon for a neighborhood in Lehighton.
A 7-month-old girl was found dead after a fire broke out in her house and people watched as her mother ran from the home, holding the baby.
“It's a very tragic ordeal for that family. My heart goes out to them. No parent should ever have to go through an ordeal like that.”
A neighborhood was in shock after 7-month-old Nevah Hoffman was found dead inside the home on South First Street after a fire broke out inside.
Karen Snyder is the maternal grandmother of the baby. She came racing down from Scranton after getting a hysterical call from her daughter.
“All she could say was, 'Nevah's dead! Nevah,' because that's her name,” said Snyder. “'Nevah's gone! Nevah's gone,' and I said, 'What are you talking about?' 'It was a fire,' that's all she could say.”
Investigators said the fire broke out on the third floor of the multi-family house around noon.
One neighbor was emotional after seeing the baby's mother run out of the house, screaming for help, holding her baby.
“All of a sudden she was on the porch screaming, 'My baby! My baby!' and I ran over,” she said.
Snyder said at the time of the fire, the only people in the home were her daughter, her daughter's 4-year-old son, and Nevah.
“Nobody was home but her. It was her, Darren, the 4 year old, and Nevah, who was exactly 7 months today, was upstairs sleeping and Darren and her were downstairs sleeping. She went up for the baby and that's when my daughter discovered the fire,” said Snyder.
State police say they were asked by the Carbon County District Attorney and Lehighton police to take over the investigation.
Numerous state police fire marshals and detectives were at the home for hours.
“The cops, the state police, the fire inspectors, we don't know. Nobody's giving us no answers. All we know is that it did start in the baby's room,” said Snyder.
State police say they are in the very early stages of this fire investigation.
An autopsy on the baby is scheduled for Saturday.
