Two young children were killed in a fire at a Lumpkin County home on Monday.
The flames engulfed the home on Rider Road Spur NE, just off of Highway 9, between Dawsonville and Dahlonega.
Lumpkin County officials confirmed that two children, ages 1 and 2, were taken to North Side Hospital in Cumming and Chestatee Regional Hospital Dahlonega, Ga., where they were both pronounced dead.
Cheri Hewell lives next door and told 11Alive News that when she ran up to the burning house, the mother was just outside, frantic and in tears. Hewell said the mother told her she wasn't sure if her two youngest children were inside, she thought and hoped that her husband had taken them with the oldest child to the store.
The mother works nights, and believed her husband had told her he would take all three children to the store so she could take a nap.
The smell of smoke woke up the mother, Hewell said, and she ran outside thinking there was a fire outside. The moment she saw that her own house was on fire, it was spreading so quickly she could not get back inside to check to see if, in fact, the children had left with their father.