5 dead, including 2 children, after home burns in western Tennessee town of Atoka

5 dead in home fire in western Tennessee

ATOKA, Tenn. — Five people, including two young children, died Tuesday when fire burned a home in western Tennessee.

Jessie Poole, the police chief of Atoka, said the fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. after two boys escaped the structure and ran to a neighbor for help.

“Upon arrival (the firefighters) got one person out,” Poole said. “When they got the fire down, there were four others inside the residence.”

Those who died were ages 1, 3, 27, 31 and 48, Poole said.

“Three or four are related and there are various relationship among all five,” he said. The victims’ names were not immediately released.

Among the dead — which included the person pulled from the fire — were a mother of the 1-year-old and 3-year-old, Poole said.

The home was heavily damaged and investigators were looking for the cause and the point of origin of the blaze.

Atoka is a town of about 6,000 people in Tipton County about 25 miles northeast of Memphis.