Blaze claims lives of woman, grandkids

BOLIVAR, N.Y. (WIVB) - Dispatchers in Allegany County received frantic 911 calls as a home in Bolivar went up in flames around 4:15 a.m. Sunday.

Charred remnants tell the deadly and devastating tale, where the fast-moving fire claimed the life of a woman and her two young grandchildren.

Recordings from the 911 Fire Dispatch are chilling. “Be advised we're getting another call. There are children still in the house at this time. They're reporting that they're trapped at this time. Three people trapped. Two children.”

Bolivar Fire Department Chief Jim Beaton said, “We did end up calling in approximately eight units for the scene throughout Allegany, Cattaragus and Shinglehouse.”

Five people lived inside the home on Horse Run Road. Sixty-two-year-old Terry Green and a one-year-old child managed to escape, but 42-year-old Tina M. Kemp and her two grandchildren, three-year-old Eric S. Holmes and two-year-old Jessica l. Holmes, did not survive.

Beaton said, “We've been able to talk to the 62-year-old male and it's just one of those terrible, unfortunate tragedies that strikes once in awhile and it really brings a community like this together.”

Kemp and the one-year-old child were treated and released from Olean General Hospital.

Fire investigators have the difficult task of trying to determine what caused the fire.