GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. – The fire that swept through a camper Wednesday afternoon about 10 miles west of Brunswick has taken a second child's life, Glynn County's fire chief said Thursday afternoon.
Four-month-old Tallie Ann Carter died initially in the fire and 3-year-old Blayden Wade Reeves died Wednesday night at UF Health in Jacksonville.
A 2-year-old boy and the children's mother, Chassity Carter, remain in critical condition at the burn unit at Shands Hospital in Gainesville. The father, Michael Reeves, was treated and released from a Brunswick hospital.
Firefighters said the camper on Holly Street Circle was fully involved when they arrived at 12:40 p.m. Wednesday. Explosions were heard coming the camper while it burned. Neighbors heard several explosions minutes after the fire was reported, but the Fire Chief Randy Jordan said those might have been aerosol cans exploding.
Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said that the fire marshal and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms investigators obtained a search warrant and entered the burned out camper Thursday. They have determined the fire was started by a pot of noodles left unattended on a hotplate.
Jordan said the camper was old and cheaply manufactured, and that’s why it went up in flames so rapidly.
The family was living in the camper after their mobile home next door had burned last May. Doering said that fire was considered suspicious and remains under investigation.
911 calls released from deadly fire
Police released on Thursday the 911 calls made by neighbors when they saw the camper on fire Wednesday afternoon.
VIDEO: 911 calls released in camper fire
In one of the calls, someone can be heard jumping in to try to help the children.
911 Caller 1: "Come on we need to get them out of here. Please hurry. We got babies with third-degree burns over 90 percent of their body."
In the first of the two frantic 911 calls, a neighbor urged for first responders to get to the scene quickly.
Caller 1: "We got one adult hardly burned. We got one adult severely burned. One baby is still alive, I got in my arms. Without one of the babies that is deceased."
911 Dispatcher: "I understand. Make sure no one else is in the house. Is anyone else in the house?"
Caller 1: "Oh! We got an explosion."
Within in seconds, dispatch received another call from another neighbor, revealing that not everyone made it out.
911 Dispatcher: "Is there a kid inside the house?"
911 Caller 2: "Yes. He's gone though. He's dead. He said he is gone. It's the oldest kid."
Others who live nearby told News4Jax Wednesday that they were horrified when they learned of the tragedy.
Expert warns owners of older-model campers, RVs
A recreational vehicle expert warned owners of older model RVs or campers after investigators announced that the condition of the family's camper played a major part in the deadly fire.
"You can reflect back to the '70s when so many people were killed in manufactured homes because of the cheap construction. It is the same condition," Jordan said. "They burn so rapidly."
Alan Dulberger, the general manager of RV dealer Travelcamp, agreed with Jordan, saying RVs made years ago were made primarily of cheap wood and inexpensive fiberglass -- materials that are flammable.
"On the old RVs, the cabinets are like paper thin, like cardboard, and it almost has a paper front to it that looks like wood," Dulberger said.
But since then, Dulberher said, stricter standards and regulations have been put in place to prevent tragedies like Wednesday's deadly fire.
"They are scotch guarded. They have more of a durable wood and they're just built safer and they are just built better," he said. "It's like an old house that has a lot of things built up in it, like clothes, dishes, old papers. The newer RVs are more spacious, have a lot of storage on the outside. The chances of having a fire are a lot less."
Dulberher also said many of the old models did not have smoke detectors or fire extinguishers, which is why he advised anyone with a camper or RV more than 15 years old to buy a new one.