THE NATION - News from Jan. 6, 2009
A fast-moving house fire killed eight people, including four young brothers and their mother, despite frantic attempts to save them, authorities and a witness said.
Only a few blackened fragments of walls remained standing after the white-hot fire -- possibly caused by a wood stove -- engulfed the aging two-story home in Richland, 37 miles north of Syracuse.
The owner of the home and lone survivor was identified as Anthony DeRoose, 42.
A neighbor said DeRoose tried so desperately to rescue the people in the house that police had to handcuff him to keep him from entering the burning structure.
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