Within the early morning darkness of Jan. 3, St. Paul firefighter Jake Ryks had just broken through the front door of the burning house on Arkwright Street when more details got here across his radio.

There was an open phone line in the home and it was believed there have been people still inside.

Breaking standard protocol, which might have been to attend for one more firefighter, Ryks knew the urgency of the situation and charged contained in the home alone to look for victims.

Ryks’ story, and people of his colleagues, that were shared at a Saturday news conference painted an image of the chaotic scene the night the hearth broke out, trapping a mother and her six children.

4 of those children have since perished from their injuries. The mother and two of her children remain hospitalized in critical condition.

At Saturday’s news conference, Deputy Fire Chief Roy Mokosso said that the preliminary investigation into the reason behind the blaze indicates it was began by an unattended candle.

It appears the family couldn’t get out of their Payne-Phalen home because the hearth was by the front door and escaping out the back would have meant a drop from a second-story level, Mokosso said last week.

Ryks was considered one of 63 people, a combined force of firefighters and EMS staff, who got here together on that night to place out the hearth and rescue the family inside.

Visibility contained in the home was next to none when Ryks raced in. The primary room he entered was the lounge, where he said he could feel “moderate” heat and see a “trickle of fireplace through the smoke” along the back wall.

He navigated his strategy to the closest bedroom and located a baby, whom he scooped up and ran back to the front door, where he handed the kid to a colleague. He then “retraced” his steps and located a second child near where he had found the primary one. After handing that child off to a firefighter on the front door, he returned and located a 3rd child in an upper bunk bed within the bedroom.

This time, when he went back to the front door, no one was there handy the third child to.

“The scene had change into chaotic,” he said as his colleagues fought to place out the hearth and save the lives of the primary two children.

Carrying the third child in his arms, Ryks walked a block to where EMS staff were doing CPR on the opposite children.

Once there, he ripped off his mask and gloves and started CPR on the kid he had carried until other EMS staff could take over. As he ran back to the home, he was told there was a second adult victim in the home.

Within the meantime, other firefighters had rescued the mother and two other children.

Back at the home, Ryks searched but there have been no more victims contained in the home.

At Saturday’s news conference at St. Paul Fire Department headquarters, Fire Chief Butch Inks became visibly moved as he spoke of his pride within the individuals who responded that night and the problem of what they experienced, rescuing babies who had succumbed to smoke inhalation.

He said the primary responders were shaken by what happened, and that he couldn’t be more happy with the 63 who responded to the blaze.

“I’m very protective of them,” he said. “I’m their chief. As chief, it’s my goal and my mission to assist them understand that they did every thing they may. They utilized all of the training that they’ve been given, they worked together as a team from the primary engine to the last paramedic working on folks, they did every thing they may, however the final result isn’t all the time what we expect it’s going to be, and it’s my job to proceed to work with them so that they understand that.”

The response time of the engines was “incredible,” he said, noting that the primary engine was there lower than 4 minutes after the 911 call and that five engines were there inside five minutes.

Eight ambulances were on scene. The primary child arrived on the hospital nine minutes after the primary engine arrived on the scene, in line with St. Paul Fire Capt. Rob Watson.

When Dr. Alex Lacey of the Regions Hospital burn surgery department arrived on the hospital, resuscitation of the victims was still happening.

“It’s one thing to have one patient in (cardiac) arrest, but to have so many directly really requires a variety of coordination of care and a variety of teamwork,” she said on the news conference. “It was an enormous team effort and everybody was there giving their all to the family.”

The last time there was a hearth that caused multiple fatalities was in 2017 when a lady and a 2-year-old were killed and two other children were critically injured, Mokosso said.

“It is unusual for us to have multiple fatalities from one fire. And to have 4 is incredibly tragic,” he said, noting that there are a mean of two to 3 fire fatalities a yr in St. Paul.

In 2023, the St. Paul Fire Department responded to 63,000 calls for service, including fire, rescue and medical services, said Assistant Chief Steve Sampson of the EMS division.

Capt. Mike Smith, president of St. Paul Firefighters IAFF Local 21, said the union is donating $10,000 to the Vang family.