A 13-year-old boy and his 63-year-old grandmother died early today after their Lowndes County house caught fire.
Christopher Hargrove and Mary Hargrove were trapped inside 3318 Nashville Ferry Road, where they lived with his mother, when the house caught fire at about 6:15 a.m.
Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant pronounced Christopher Hargrove dead of smoke inhalation at the scene at 6:45 a.m.
Mary Hargrove was taken in critical condition with fire-related injuries to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, where she died shortly after noon of smoke inhalation, Merchant said.
His mother, whose name was not immediately available, was not at home when the fire started and could not be reached for comment.
Although the cause of the fire was unclear, a neighbor said the fire seemed to have started in the kitchen, where the family had been cooking.
The boy”s great aunt, Joyce McCoy, broke into tears as she told how Hargrove had just celebrated a birthday, Thursday.
“My nephew”s dead in that house. My sister”s burned up,” she said. “You try to make sense of it, but it seems so unreal.”
Hargrove would have entered the eighth grade this fall.
As is customary whenever there”s a fatal fire, a state fire marshal investigator is scheduled to arrive at the scene today. Arson had not been ruled out by 10 a.m. today, but was not suspected.
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