Vigil held for twin girls killed in Upper Darby house fire: 'This is too much'

A vigil was held Wednesday night in Upper Darby outside the charred remains of a home where 5-year-old twin sisters died in a fire that badly injured their mother. 

Firefighters were called to the 300 block of Margate Road around 4 a.m. Tuesday for reports of a fire that officials say quickly struck two alarms. 

Reginald Spotwood, a neighbor, told FOX 29 that he heard the twin sisters pleading for help and entered the burning house to try to rescue them but could not. 

Family members later identified the girls as 5-year-old twin sisters Eva and Ava Brown-Williams. Their mother, Robyn Brown, jumped from a second-story window and sustained serious injuries. 

"She fought to save her children, that's why she's burnt up," Carolyn Pugh, the aunt of the twins, told FOX 29.

Upper Darby Fire Chief Derrick Sawyer told reporters that the fire worsened when the twins opened their bedroom door. 

"When the fire starts in the living room area and goes right up the stairs – when you open the door it adds fuel to the fire and helps the fire grow and spread," Sawyer said. 

The deadly fire comes at a time when the family was already mourning the loss of Robyn's 24-year-old brother Denzel Brown who was shot and killed in Strawberry Mansion in late-March. 

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The family said Denzel was fatally shot while walking to the store on his lunch break while working at Strawberry Mansion High School. 

Robyn was working on Denzel's obituary hours before the deadly Tuesday morning fire. 

"This is too much for anybody’s family to take, 3 people gone at one time and the way that they died this is what is hard as hell to accept," Pugh said. "I’m just questioning, and I’ve never questioned God as to why us, why us?"