Cell text may have saved others in Manitoba house fire that killed four boys

KANE, Man. — The grandmother of four boys killed in a house fire in southern Manitoba says a cellphone text may have saved others in the home.

Beverley Eberhardt (EBB’-er-hart) says the phone message woke her daughter up early Wednesday and that’s when Eberhardt discovered the blaze.

Doralee Eberhardt managed to get her three youngest children out of the home, but was unable to reach the boys on the second floor.

Her husband and their 18-year-old son got home from work about the same time and tried unsuccessfully to rescue the boys upstairs with a ladder.

She identified her dead grandsons as Bobby, 15, Timmy, 12, Danny, 11, and Henry, 9.

She says all of the boys were special and loved to read books, play video games and go hunting.