Five children dead in house blaze

(CNN) -- Five children and two adults -- understood to all be members of the same family -- died early on Tuesday morning after a house fire swept through their Northern Ireland home.

Neighbors in Omagh, County Tyrone, said the victims included a months-old baby, the UK's Press Association reported.

Fire crews battled the blaze which started on the first floor of the terrace house at around 4.30am GMT, causing the roof to collapse.

Neighbors said they had spotted members of the family trapped upstairs but could do little to save them.

"I've never seen anything like it. It must have been a ferocious fire," Omagh independent councilor Paddy McGowan, a former fireman, told PA.

"Neighbors were hammering on their windows and doors. They could hear screaming from the house which was on fire. There is nothing left but bare, black walls. Absolutely nothing."

McGowan, a firefighter for 25 years, said the blaze had been one of the worst losses of life in a single incident that he could remember. E-mail to a friend