Thick smoke swallowed up the third and fourth floors of a Gary apartment building, causing the death of two children and displacing hundreds of residents Sunday morning.
Cell phone footage from Indiana rescuers showed the inside of the Lakeshore dunes apartment building where the fire broke out.
Authorities said a 2-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy died on the fourth floor. The video captured shows their older brother merely wearing pajama pants, trying to go up the stairs to save them, but ultimately failed.
The 8-year-old boy is seen in the video yelling “my brother and sister are up there."
"They were telling him to jump and he had tears in his eyes," resident rescuer David Stone said.
Richard Johnson was also one of the rescuers at the scene.
"We all held the sheet and he jumped down," Johnson explained.
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According to another rescuer, the older sibling mentioned that his mother hadn't been home since the night before.
Residents said it will be difficult for them to return to work and school. They also said they'd like to see management do more. NBC 5 reached out to the management office Monday and the office responded with "no comment."
In the meantime, residents are being moved to a shelter in Hobart Tuesday.
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
