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Pocono News Section
Father Dies in Fire Trying to Save His Child
Father Dies in Fire Trying to Save His Child - Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 5:35PM EST
Reported by: Eyewitness News
Wednesday, Jan 7, 2009 @ 05:35pm EST
COOLBAUGH TWP., MONROE COUNTY- A family in the Poconos is without a husband and father after fire ripped through their home. It happened in the gated community, "A Pocono Country Place" in Coolbaugh Township, near Tobyhanna.
Neighbors say 37-year-old Idris Cox died a hero. He went back into his burning home, trying to save one of his four children. Juan Carlos Rodriguez lives nearby. He was awoken just after 1:00 Wednesday morning. “The one kid came and was banging on my window and I'm like, 'what's going on,' I thought it was a fire and I heard screaming," he told Eyewitness News.
he rushed to the burning home just as the father and 17-year-old son realized one little girl was still missing. "And then when they got out they said there was one girl missing so the father went back in the house with the boy and when they did that the boy grabbed the girl and he said he got out through the back and then he didn't see his father anymore," said Rodriguez.
The teenaged son emerged with the little girl, but their father was nowhere to be found. The neighbors tried to help but the fire was simply too intense. "My neighbor who lives next door he came out too and we were trying to get in but there was no way to get in the house because the whole bottom was in flames," said Rodriguez.
Moments later firefighters arrived and went in to find him. Coolbaugh Twp. Fire Chief John Zwally said, "We got a possible location in the house where the victim was, we sent our guys right in, a hose team in and a search team in right away searching for the victim."
But it was too late. The 37-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. None of the other 5 people in the house were hurt. A PA State Police Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire along with Pocono Mountain Regional Police detectives.
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