A 5-year-old boy who escaped the fire that killed 12 people in a Fairmount apartment Wednesday told investigators the blaze started after he accidentally lit a Christmas tree on fire while playing with a lighter, according to police records obtained by The Inquirer.

When first responders arrived at the three-story rowhouse before sunrise, the boy had made it out of the building. He then told a neighbor — and later a paramedic, a firefighter, and hospital staff — how the fire had started and that his mother had died.

The new details emerged as local and federal investigators on Thursday continued to parse through the debris and interview surviving witnesses, and as family members of the victims gathered for an evening vigil in the neighborhood. Authorities have not officially identified the occupants who died in the upper unit of the brick duplex, but more names and details trickled out: Relatives said the victims were three adult sisters and nine of their children.

Read more of Thursday’s coverage here:

At Bache-Martin Elementary in Fairmount Thursday at least 100 relatives, friends, Bache-Martin students with parents, police, and total strangers paid their respects to the eight children and four adults killed in Wednesday’s fire.

Jade Garner and her daughter Elle, 7, came to the vigil with star shaped blue balloons and a candle. Garner said her daughter danced ballet with one of the young girls who died and they wanted to show solidarity with the family.

”They raised the kids very well,” said Garner. “[The children] were all so nice.”

As requested by the family, many others joined the Garners and carried pink, purple, blue, and white balloons, which came in an assortment of shapes such as hearts and angel wings.

The family released a brief statement asking for privacy and support for funeral expenses. They directed those interested in helping to a GoFundMe.

”Our family would like to thank everyone for their kindness, generosity, and prayers during this horrific time,” read the statement. “We feel the love and appreciate the support.”

The family would only confirm the death of Rosalee McDonald, Virginia Thomas, and Quinsha White. For the time being, the women’s mother, Vanessa McDonald, said she’s not ready to release the names of the nine grandchildren she lost.

Family members led a moment of silence for their loves ones as they carried photos of them.

They asked attendees to release their balloons in unison. Some balloons got caught in a telephone line and a transformer blew, prompting police to disperse the crowd, thus ending the vigil.

— Ximena Conde

Virginia “Ginny” Thomas was just a child in 2006 when Kim Evans and Samdai Stricklan knocked on her door to offer her a chance to attend a new program called Camp Miracles, a youth mentorship program in Schwenksville, Montgomery County. Thomas enjoyed the program so much that she returned as a camper through the summer of 2010, they said.

”The cabins didn’t all have electricity and we had these little battery operated lights. And the kids were so scared. She would go around to all the younger kids reassuring them. She was a mentor to the younger kids while she was being mentored,” Evans, CEO of Hope for Kids, the nonprofit that operates Camp Miracles, said in her Villanova home Thursday.

Evans and Stricklan, who laughed easily while reminiscing how Thomas took to nature and blossomed as a young woman during her camping years, said the shock of her death is still painful.

”We prayed on the phone last night, crying,” said Stricklan. “She was a beautiful soul. Just beautiful.”

This summer, the camp will plant a tree at the camp in Thomas’ memory, they said.

”It ‘s just vey, very sad. The thing about the kids that come with us is, they get a view of life and hope and excitement. Like Ginny, she was doing well,” Evans said. “She was a wonderful, kind person. It’s just heartbreaking.”

Stricklan and Evans recalled that Thomas was soft-spoken, a little shy and always protective of her fellow campers. One of those former campers, Kayla Henderson, a recent college graduate and cousin by marriage to Thomas, said she was kind to all but especially to her four children.

”You never really heard her raising her voice,” Henderson, 26, said in a phone interview. “She loved her children so much. Her children were her life. She would do anything for anybody, and she was always comforting. She was definitely like a big sister to the younger campers.”

Henderson noted that Thomas’ son will turn six on Friday. ”It may sound horrible, but I just keep trying to pretend that it didn’t happen. But you can’t help but think about it,” said Henderson, a therapeutic recreation specialist.

— Mensah Dean

At Bache-Martin Elementary in Fairmount, at least 100 relatives, friends, Bache-Martin students with parents, and police have gathered at a vigil for the 12 killed in yesterday’s fire.

In a printed statement provided to the media, family members said: “Our family would like to thank everyone for their kindness, generosity, and prayers during this horrific time. We feel the love and appreciate the support.”

The family members also said that a GoFundMe page has been created to help pay for funeral expenses.

Just after 6:50 p.m. Thursday, the page said that more than $146,000 already had been raised of the $100,000 goal.

— Ximena Conde

Philadelphia Housing Authority officials said Thursday that as of last spring, the 13 smoke alarms and 6 carbon monoxide detectors in the two-unit Fairmount rowhouse ravaged by a fatal fire Wednesday were deemed fully operational.

Standing outside the three-story brick rowhome where the blaze killed 12 people — including eight children — PHA president and CEO Kelvin Jeremiah told reporters that agency inspectors had visited the home in April and May 2021, reinstalling two detectors with lithium batteries.

At the time, officials said, residents signed a form assuming responsibility for maintaining the alarms and contacting the housing authority with any issues. But in older homes with detachable detectors, Jeremiah explained, it’s not uncommon for residents to remove batteries from the detectors for myriad reasons, including if the alarms are near the kitchen or if residents may be smoking. “It happens,” he said.

Fire officials said Wednesday that at the time of the blaze, at least four smoke detectors were not functioning. Calling the fatal fire “an incredible and unimaginable loss,” Jeremiah said the PHA is supporting the affected families in “whatever way possible” and has already determined rehousing for the surviving tenants.

The housing authority is installing built-in smoke alarms and sprinkler systems in its newer units, Jeremiah said, but lacks the funding to make the same improvements in its older housing portfolio. He pleaded for lawmakers to approve President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill, which he said could bring upward of a billion dollars to public housing coffers in Philadelphia, helping to address the city’s housing backlog and “bring older units up to 2021 standards.

”The charred rowhome on North 23rd Street came under PHA ownership in 1969, Jeremiah said, one of 4,000 of the agency’s “scatter site” housing units across the city, which offer “low-income families the opportunity to live in affordable homes in what is gentrifying neighborhoods,” minutes away from “a good promising school” and “a whole host of amenities.”

Jeremiah said that six people were signed to the lease of the lower unit of the Fairmount rowhouse, while 14 people shared the top four-bedroom apartment ravaged by the blaze. Authorities on Wednesday said 26 people were in the home at the time of the fire. Jeremiah said that the authority hadn’t determined whether the additional people in the home were visitors or additional residents, but noted that this is “a time of year when families gather” and that “we are not going to be critical of the families who have suffered this unimaginable loss.”

At the time the family moved into the upper-story four-bedroom unit in 2011, Jeremiah said, six people — including a grandmother raising her three daughters — had signed onto the lease. The daughters had children, Jeremiah said, and by 2021, there were “three generations living under the same roof.”

“We don’t kick out family members, or loved ones who may not have suitable housing options,” Jeremiah said, adding that the cramped conditions of the apartment highlights “the housing crisis that confronts Philadelphia, and frankly, that confronts the United States.”

”While the conditions are deteriorating, nationally, our families wait and wait and wait [for housing]. They can wait no more,” Jeremiah said, choking back tears. “It has become a question of life and death for too many families, and this unfortunate, unimaginable tragedy highlights that in some real ways.”

PHA residents who are concerned about their smoke alarms or may need new batteries should contact the agency’s customer response center at 215-684-8920.

— Oona Goodin-Smith

Virginia Thomas, 30, graduated from the Young Women’s Leadership School at Rhodes High School in North Philadelphia. There, she was in special education classes, where Erica McLean, now 49, was her teacher for five years, from eighth grade until she graduated about 12 years ago. The two often kept in touch through Facebook.

McLean remembered Thomas as social, kind, and fashionable. If a girl came into class crying, Thomas would take them to the bathroom to talk and get them cleaned up, McLean said. McLean remembered when a new student with Down syndrome joined the class and was struggling to connect with the work, Thomas took the extra time to help her and make her feel included with the other students.

”She was truly a godsend,” McLean said. “She wanted to bring her up to the same level as everyone else in the class.”

Margaret Wayne spoke to Virginia Thomas just the night before she died. Wayne, whose stepson Sean Wayne is the father to three of Thomas’ children, said Virginia called her to say she was desperate to move out.

”She was like, I don’t want to be here no more, I’m trying to get out of here, to find a place for me and my kids,” Wayne said. “I said do what’s best for you and your babies.”

Wayne said she suggested going to a shelter if necessary, but then, she said, “she cut off, and didn’t answer me.”

”Something was bothering her, but she wouldn’t speak out to me what it was,” she said.

Wayne said Thomas was bubbly and friendly, and she would frequently pick up her and the kids from Fairmount to spend time at their South Philadelphia home. They would go on trips together around the region and have cookouts on the weekends. “She would help anybody that she could. She would give you the clothes off her back,” she said.

“She took care of her kids alone,” Wayne said. “She kept them beautiful.”

Thomas and her three daughters, Shaniece, 10; Natasha, 7; and Janiyah, 4; died in the fire. Her sole son survived, but is in critical condition at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Wayne said. The boy’s 6th birthday is Friday.

Wayne described the little girls as bubbly, sweet, and respectful, and said they loved school. Sean Wayne, father to Shaniece, Natasha, and the surviving boy, is currently incarcerated. Margaret Wayne said his sister called to break the news, and that he is in disbelief, and continues to call Thomas’ phone to see if she will pick up.

Margaret Wayne said her 76-year-old husband, Louis Wayne, was hospitalized Thursday because of chest pains from the stress of the deaths.

— Ellie Rushing

Destiny McDonald was a star of the Bache-Martin co-ed basketball team, fierce and competitive.

”She had a lot of energy, and she could jump higher than the boys,” said her coach Andre Wright, a founder of Give and Go Athletics, which runs programs at Bache-Martin Elementary, where Destiny graduated from eighth grade in June.

Destiny, a victim of the fire that claimed 12 lives Wednesday, loved fiercely. Even after she left Bache-Martin, she called Wright “Coach.”

”If someone tried to say something slick out the side of their mouth, she’d say, ‘Don’t talk about my coach like that,’” said Wright. “She was a protector. To know her was to love her.”

Destiny, who was 14, dreamed of an all-girls basketball team at Bache, a reality Wright wasn’t able to make happen before her death. But going forward, there will be — in Destiny’s honor, Wright said.

Her big brother Quintien Tate-McDonald, who walked Destiny to practice, wasn’t as athletic as his sister, but his can-do attitude drew people to him, said Wright. He played basketball in his Bache days, but also volunteered for the concession stand, just to help out. ”He was always trying to find other things that he could do to show his worth,” Wright said.

Two weeks ago, Wright and his business partner Caleb Jones ran into Quintien on the street. Wright and Jones are working on brewing beer, and Quintien, who was 16 and also perished in the fire, “had a million questions about what we were doing, how does it make money, how could he do something like that when he was older.”

No one minded answering Quintien’s questions, Wright said. ”You don’t come across many kids like Quintien,” said Wright, who has hardly slept since hearing about the fire. “I’m just hoping to wake up from this nightmare.”

— Kristen A. Graham

Investigators probing the deadly Fairmount rowhouse fire have engaged national experts and are using “‘all the technology that we can bring to bear” to determine the cause of the blaze, authorities said Thursday.

During a news conference near the charred home, officials declined to comment on what sparked the fire that killed 12 people Wednesday morning, and they refused to answer questions about where the fire was concentrated or what witnesses told investigators.

Sources told The Inquirer Thursday that investigators are probing whether a child playing with a lighter near a Christmas tree had ignited the flames. Fire Department Deputy Chief Dennis Merrigan declined to comment on that theory. He said the Fire Marshal’s Office is leading a “very complex” investigation and is using a variety of technologies to probe the incident, including laser scanners that create 3-D renderings of the inside of the structure.

ATF Special Agent in Charge Matthew Varisco said federal agents are assisting the investigation and have called in additional resources including electrical engineers and fire protection engineers to ensure there is “really no stone left unturned.”

”We haven’t ruled anything in or out,” he said. He added “I can assure you there will be no expense spared and no resource not allocated … based upon the tragedy that occurred here in the city.”

— Anna Orso

A family residing in one of two units inside a PHA apartment building that was the site of a fatal Wednesday blaze in Fairmount has survived, family members told the Inquirer.

Yvette Woods-Carter, 53, leased the lower unit of the three-story rowhouse, which had been subdivided into two apartments, where she lived along with her adult daughter Tyhara Carter and three young grandchildren. Woods-Carter was not on premises at the time of the fire and declined an initial request for an interview, but two relatives with knowledge of situation said other family members were able to quickly flee the blaze.

Debra Jackson, Tyhara Carter’s aunt, said family members told her they first heard screams from the upstairs unit, where the fire began.

”My niece was woken up by the screaming,” Jackson said. “She said she heard the screaming and it was louder, a different kind of scream. Then she smelled the smoke.”

Jackson said Tyhara Carter, her three children and her boyfriend were able to quickly flee, as the entrance to the lower unit was immediately adjacent to the building entrance. Both Jackson and Woods-Carter’s sister in law, Markita Aldridge-Carter, said all five were alive and healthy. Two grandchildren sustained minor burns while escaping the building, but did not require hospitalization.

Aldridge-Woods said she had visited her relative in the 23rd Street home for many times over the past ten years and was friendly with the upstairs neighbors.

”My heart just goes out to both families. It’s just such a tremendous loss,” Aldridge-Woods said. “I’d love to see the community rally behind the people that did survive.”

But while Woods-Carter’s family is alive, her sister-in-law said they had still lost nearly all their possessions in the catastrophic fire, the cause of which is still under investigation.

”They need basic, every day necessities. Everything is gone,” said Aldridge-Woods. “They need clothes. Like anyone starting fresh, they need toiletries. Just basic necessities.”

A fundraiser has been launched by family members to raise money on Woods-Carter’s behalf.

— Ryan W. Briggs

Investigators are probing whether the Fairmount rowhouse fire that killed 12 people Wednesday started when a child playing with a lighter set a Christmas tree ablaze.

That information was contained in a search warrant application filed Wednesday in Common Pleas Court. Philadelphia investigators sought access to the apartment building, said Chesley Lightsey, chief of homicide for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

The warrant contained “information that a child age 5 or under was playing with a lighter and lit the tree on fire,” she said Thursday.

The child, who lived in the house, ran outside as the conflagration began to engulf the three-story home on the 800 block of North 23rd Street, and told first responders at the scene that the tree was on fire, said two additional sources familiar with the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the integrity of the investigation.

The child has since been interviewed by investigators, said the sources, one of whom was recounting details from the search warrant.

No charges are anticipated — children under 10 cannot be charged in Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to formally rule whether the deaths were accidental or homicides.

Investigators required the warrant to search the residence and continue the investigation, after the fire had been put out.

The Philadelphia Fire Marshal’s Office continues to investigate and has not yet officially determined the cause of the blaze, one of the nation’s deadliest residential fires in decades.

» READ MORE: Child playing with lighter near Christmas tree may have caused Fairmount fire, sources say

— Chris Palmer, Samantha Melamed, and Jeremy Roebuck

A man who was hospitalized by the deadly fire inside a Fairmount rowhouse Wednesday is in “fair condition,” according to Temple University Hospital.

Howard Robinson, who, according to a GoFundMe page, lived in the building and was the father to several of the children who died, was hospitalized Wednesday after the fire. Robinson remained at Temple Hospital Thursday in “fair condition,” a spokesperson said.

The early morning blaze killed 12 people — four adults and eight children. Sisters Rosalee McDonald, 33, and Virginia Thomas, 30, and most of their children were among the victims.

McDonald’s Facebook posts suggest she and Robinson were in a relationship.

— Ellie Rushing

Quintien Tate-McDonald lived his life with great zest. Quintien, 16, was identified by multiple sources as a victim of Wednesday’s deadly Fairmount fire.

It’s been several years since Kristin Luebbert taught him as a seventh grader at Bache-Martin Elementary in Fairmount, but Quintien’s warmth lives in her memory.

“We all love all of our kids, but some of them stick in your memory forever,” said Luebbert. “Quintien was that kid. I’m so sad about everybody, but I can’t stop thinking about Quintien.”

Energetic and perpetually happy, Quintien said hello to everyone in the hallways — students and teachers alike, even if he wasn’t in their class.

“You usually were always smiling when you saw Quintien — he had this absolute sweetness that always just emanated from him. We loved that about him; he was just such a beautiful soul, a beautiful presence.”

Luebbert lives in the neighborhood, and if the weather was halfway nice, she might run into Quintien, who loved zooming around Fairmount on his bike. He kept active, loved science and hands-on projects, and seeing new places.

“He was always an enthusiastic participant, thinking about things,” said Luebbert.

Jenée Chizick-Agüero, who attends the same church as Quintien, Liberti Fairmount, remembered him as full of life, always making people laugh.

“Quintien’s smile would just light up the room,” said Chizick-Agüero.

He relished his role as big brother and cousin; younger children loved Quintien. Before the pandemic, when they would attend church in person, Quintien would play with Chizick’s son, who’s now four. He wasn’t shy about jumping in, she said.

“He carried his joy with him,” Chizick-Agüero said.

At the time of his death, Quintien attended Philadelphia Electrical and Technical Charter High School.

When a staffer at the school lost a relative to gun violence, Quintien Tate-McDonald went to her house to comfort his teacher.

“Quintien had a spirit that filled our school building with happiness and laughter,” said Erin Dougerty, CEO of Philadelphia Electrical and Technical High School. “He’ll just be sorely missed here.”

Quintien had a mischievous edge, but it was impossible to be mad at him for a lateness or whatever minor teenage infraction cropped up.

An enthusiastic participant in school life, Quintien signed up for every extracurricular activity and intramural sport he could. He was small, but sank three-pointers on the basketball team.

“He just connected with everyone, kids and adults — every single person has a story about him,” said Dougherty. “The kids are devastated.”

The school held meetings Thursday to help students and staff cope with their grief, and is making extra support available, Dougerty said.

— Kristen A. Graham and Juliana Reyes

Gripping burgundy and pink teddy bears, Sandra Washington paced just outside the police cordon, after she was told she couldn’t pass to give the gifts of consolation to family.

Washington, who lives in Northeast Philadelphia, did not know any of the victims. But she felt compelled to show support.

The news rattled her and reminded her of her two grandchildren.

“I just figured I would come down and show some support because I have two grandchildren of my own, 5 and 7, and I couldn’t imagine where I would be this morning,” she said. “I’m hurt. I’m broken. And so whatever I can do I’m here for you.”

As a homeowner, Washington decried the lack of hard-wired smoke detectors, a safety protocol she felt may have made a crucial difference for the victims of the fire. Officials have previously said that one or more of the buildings smoke detectors may have malfunctioned.

“When someone moves in a public housing unit the city says ‘I’m taking responsibility for this family and I’m assisting them.’ And that’s in every way,” she said. “These are children. These are kids and they’re gone. Their future is over because they didn’t have a battery in the smoke detector?”

— Rodrigo Torrejón

Calling the deaths of 12 people, including eight children, an “unimaginable loss,” Philadelphia School District officials responded to the Fairmount fire Thursday.

Officials confirmed that some of the young people who died in the fire were district students, but did not specify a number. At least some of the children attended Bache-Martin Elementary, on 22nd Street.

“The School District of Philadelphia is heartbroken over this tragic new of yesterday’s house fire in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood, which claimed the lives of 12 people, including children associated with our District,” spokesperson Monica Lewis said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family members, friends and school communities who are grieving this unimaginable loss.”

The district is offering grief support to students and staff affected by the tragedy — both school-based resources and outside support provided by Uplift Center for Grieving Children.

The Red Cross has set up a support center for friends and relatives of fire victims at Bache-Martin, which does not currently house students. (The school is temporarily remote because of high numbers of COVID-19 cases among staff.)

The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, the district’s charitable arm, is working with City Council President Darrell Clarke to set up a fund providing assistance to families impacted by the fire, Lewis said.

— Kristen A. Graham

U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans arrived at the scene about 10:30 a.m. Thursday with Kelvin A. Jeremiah, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which owns the building gutted by the fire.

Jeremiah declined to take questions until a press conference scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday, only offering condolences to the family.

“It’s a real tragedy for all the families,” he said. “And of course our primary objective as it was yesterday, as it is today and as it will be in the days to come, is to stand in firm support of the families who are suffering.”

Evans hoped for an “open and transparent” discussion on Wednesday’s fire, but said he stood with Jeremiah and would wait to comment further.

“This is very sad obviously for the people who died,” he said. “I stand with Kelvin to see what’s going on.”

— Rodrigo Torrejón

On Thursday morning, Steven Harris gazed at the charred facade of the building, where his friend Virginia Thomas lived.

He hadn’t spoken to Thomas for years, but Sunday he received Facebook messages from her asking for a place to stay.

Days later, Harris saw the news: his friend was among the victims.

“I saw the news and I figured it out. I looked it up and saw that’s her crib,” Harris said.

Harris had visited Thomas on the second floor at the 23rd Street apartment, recalling seeing her four children at the apartment. He remembered how there was only one exit.

“I feel like PHA should have done something about this,” he said. “There’s only one exit.”

In the Facebook exchange, after Thomas responded to Harris’ messages asking her to call him, it was only missed calls to Thomas.

The last of them were placed Wednesday morning, hours after the fire had torn through the building.

Harris, who met Thomas through a cousin of hers that works at the restaurant where Harris is the executive chef, laments he couldn’t do more for his friend.

“She just had a baby two three years ago,” he said. “It’s just sad. She was asking for help. She was asking for help Sunday. And I couldn’t help her because I was at work.”

— Rodrigo Torrejón

A catastrophic fire tore through a rowhouse in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood before sunrise Wednesday and killed 12 people, including eight children, in one of the nation’s deadliest residential fires in decades.

With a dozen dead, the blaze ranks among the deadliest house fires in the last 40 years, according to the National Fire Protection Association, a trade group that identified just five other fires that have taken more lives since 1980. It also becomes one of the deadliest disasters in city history — worse than a 2008 house fire that claimed the lives of seven in Southwest Philadelphia, and more deadly than the 2013 Salvation Army building collapse that killed six people.

Authorities did not identify the victims, but relatives and friends said they included two mothers and their children, some who attended a nearby elementary school and one possibly as young as 2. Together, they occupied the top unit of a three-story brick home in which at least four smoke detectors weren’t working.

Aneisha Thomas, 37, told The Inquirer the victims included her cousins, Virginia Thomas and Rosalee McDonald, as well as some of their children. Thomas said she had grown up with the other women. Now living in Georgia, she spent the day on the phone seeking details and said the extended family was devastated by the news.

Another relative, Keta Purifoy, said the family was asking for privacy and prayers. “I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I’m numb.”

The 2,300-square-foot building housed two apartments and is owned and operated by the federally funded Philadelphia Housing Authority. The four-bedroom upper unit where the victims lived appeared to house 18 people, three times as many as were living there when the families moved in about a decade ago, officials said.

Of the 26 people housed in the building — eight in the lower unit — eight people had escaped and two others, an adult and a child, were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

» READ MORE: Fairmount house fire that killed 12 is one of the nation’s deadliest in decades

— Anna Orso, Rodrigo Torrejón, and Ryan W. Briggs

Fire officials said Wednesday the investigation into what sparked the blaze would continue through the night, but could not provide a timeline by end of day.

Fire marshals’ investigations can take days to provide a full account of a blaze. Police were seen still pulling bodies and other debris from the building after sundown.

Here’s more of what we still don’t know about the Fairmount house fire:

» READ MORE: What we know and don’t know about the Fairmount house fire

— Max Marin

Following Wednesday night’s Sixers win, head coach Doc Rivers addressed the media by offering his condolences to the family and friends of the victims who died in yesterday’s house fire in Fairmount.

“We are all Philadelphia. We feel it here. We feel for the families. The guys were talking about it before the game, so really just sad stuff,” Rivers said. “Just want the whole city and especially those families to know we’re thinking about them.”

— Rob Tornoe

It is still early, but there is at least one way to help, whether you are in Philadelphia or not.

Children First, a Philadelphia-based child advocacy nonprofit, has launched a fund-raiser to help those affected and is “reaching out to the community to find ways” to help. Formerly known as Public Citizens for Children and Youth, the group adds that all donations will go to the family and community affected by the fire.

➡️ Donate now

It is likely that more fund-raisers and ways to help will be announced in the coming days. This story will be updated.

But before donating to a charity or fund-raiser, you can check out the group on charity rating websites such as Charity Navigator, CharityWatch, and Guidestar, which evaluate nonprofits and recommend credible charitable organizations (Charity Navigator, for example, gives Children First a “give with confidence” rating).

If you are aware of other fund-raisers and ways to help those impacted by the fire, let us know at phillytips@inquirer.com.

» READ MORE: Where to donate to help victims of the Fairmount fire

— Nick Vadala

Investigations into how the blaze started and spread so quickly are underway as Philadelphia mourns the eight children and four adults killed in the fire. Catch up with our coverage here: