Conn. House Fire Kills 5

A pre-dawn blaze tore through a million-dollar house in Stamford, Conn., this Christmas morning, killing three children and two adults in what the town's mayor called "a terrible, terrible day for the city of Stamford. There probably has not been a worse Christmas day in the city of Stamford." Two people, a man and a woman, were pulled from the fire, which engulfed all 4,000 square feet of the house. The acting fire chief said he did not know the survivors' status: "We had our hands full from the moment we arrived on the scene," he said.

Neighbors told the AP that they awoke to screams: “The flames were coming through the top floor, and I thought, ‘Nobody could possibly survive this,' " said one. "My whole life was in that house," said a woman who was led away by rescuers, neighbors tell the New York Times. The house, a late 19th-century Victorian purchased a year ago for $1.75 million, had been undergoing extensive renovations. The family has not yet been named by authorities. (More house fire stories.)