A distraught man drove through his garage door to summon help as a fire raced through his rural home, killing his wife and two young children, authorities said Saturday.
The fire outside Flora killed Leah Wagoner, 40, and the couple’s children, 4-year-old Sophia and 7-year-old Harrison, the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department said.
The father, Brian Wagoner, awoke to a home filling with smoke shortly before midnight Friday. After finding the front door blocked, he ran to the garage, where the garage door opened wouldn’t work, so he drove the lowered door. He went to a neighbor’s house to call for help, deputies said.
Flora police Officer Josh Disinger, the first emergency responder on the scene, found the home fully engulfed in flames but broke out a bedroom window to remove Sophia and passed her to medics, but they were unable to save her life.
Leah Wagoner was found on the kitchen floor and Harrison was found in his bed.
Investigators preliminarily determined the cause for the fire was electrical, said John Erickson, a spokesman for the state fire marshal.
It was the second deadly fire in the Carroll County town within six weeks, after a fatal mobile home fire on April 9.
Flora is about 60 miles north of Indianapolis.
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