2 boys, wheel-chair bound mother dead after fire at west Houston apartment complex

HOUSTON - A 10-year-old boy, a 14-year-old boy, and their wheelchair-bound mother have died after an apartment building in west Houston went up in flames Wednesday morning.

The fire was reported around 4 a.m. Wednesday in the 12700 block of Whittington Drive.

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Crews arrived to find heavy fire and smoke coming from the building.

The fire department says crews entered the building and started getting residents out of apartments, but at some point, there were signs of an imminent collapse. Fire officials say crews got out of the building, and a partial collapse did occur.

The Houston Fire Department battled a fire at an apartment complex on Whittington Drive.

When firefighters were able to reenter the building, HFD says, they found three people dead. Those who died were described as a woman who uses a wheelchair and two boys.

"She is in a wheelchair, and she has one leg, and her son is autistic, and she’s pretty heavyset," said neighbor Chris Green. "I was thinking her husband would’ve helped her out or something like that."

The medical examiner will determine their cause of death.

A total of six units were destroyed. HFD says they were able to contain the fire to one building. HFD says the children's father was at work when the fire happened.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.