Two young boys who did not go to school after classes were canceled due to frigid temperatures were killed in an explosion and fire at their home.
Julian Keiser, 4, and Jameson Keiser, 6, stayed home on Friday as bitter cold weather swept across Defiance, Missouri.
Police officers responded to reports of an explosion at the house on the 2900 block of Highway 94 around 7.45am, said St Charles County Police Department Cpl Barry Bayles.
Firefighters arrived at the scene minutes after cops to find the home engulfed in flames. They entered the building through a window and looked for the boys but ‘weren’t able to find them right away due to the fire conditions’, New Melle Fire Protection District Chief Dan Casey told the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
Three adults managed to escape the burning home.
Another fire crew got into the home and found the children dead.
‘If you ever met the boys at the Defiance Roadhouse, the Christmas Festival or the St Patty’s Day parade you will never forget their enthusiasm for life and the joy they brought to all around them,’ states a GoFundMe page for their funerals.
The boys lived in the home with their mother Evelyn Turpiano, their grandmother Jen Ham and their mother’s step dad Vern Ham, at the time of the ‘horrific tragedy’, according to the fundraiser.
Their home was owned by the Hoffmann Family of Companies, which had been developing properties and starting wineries in the area in an effort to turn it into a Midwest Napa Valley.
‘Our hearts are with the member of our team and their family who lost their children and grandchildren,’ stated the firm.
Neighbor Sharon Oberlag said they were ‘the sweetest little boys’.
‘They were so cute and they thought going to school was the most fantastic thing,’ she told the newspaper.
The cause of the fire was not immediately determined. The family lost all of their possessions and their home in Defiance, which is about 40 miles west of St Louis.
As of Monday evening, the GoFundMe page had raised more than $148,000.
‘In addition to your financial support,’ the page states, ‘The family will need your prayers and emotional support as they grieve the lost of two special little boys.’