Adult, child killed in Pine Bluff blaze

Fire officials work at Fifth and Poplar streets in Pine Bluff.
Fire officials work at Fifth and Poplar streets in Pine Bluff.

— An adult and a child died Friday in a fire that destroyed a house in Pine Bluff.

Pine Bluff Fire Department Lt. Harold Clark said the two-story residential structure at Fifth Avenue and Poplar Street was fully engulfed when crews arrived a little after 7 a.m.

Firefighters extinguished the flames and later found the body of an adult and a child in the wreckage. Their names have not been released.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to the family at this time," Clark said.

Battalion Chief Scott Moore, who was the first to arrive at the scene, said crews had to fight the blaze from outside the structure because of how much the fire had spread.

Moore said the department has asked the Arkansas State Fire Marshal's Office for assistance with the investigation, including possibly bringing in K9s to sniff for accelerants. He said there is no preliminary indication of anything suspicious.

The fire appears to have started at the back of the large house, which had been divided up into apartments, Moore said.

By midday Friday, only a pile of smoldering rubble remained on the lot.

"It's always devastating," Moore said of the double-fatality fire. "I've been on the job 28 years plus and it doesn't get any easier."

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