Jeremy Brilliant/Eyewitness News
Flora - Family and friends gathered Monday to remember the mother and her two children who died in a weekend fire in Carroll County.
Dozens of mourners waited in line to pay their respects just two days after the house fire than claimed the lives of a mother and her two young children. The fire started during a thunderstorm late Friday night.
"Just shock, I think is a good description, yet there is a peace, because this is a strong, faith-based community," said family friend Bret Rinehart. "And there's a peace with where Leah and her children are."
Forty-year-old Leah Wagoner and her seven-year-old son Harrison and four-year-old daughter Sophia all died in the blaze. Husband and father Brian Wagoner was the sole survivor.
"We can find absolutely nothing that points to anything but an accidental fire," said Flora Fire Chief Scott Sisson.
Despite working smoke detectors and a detailed escape plan, Sisson says the blaze was too intense for Wagoner to save his family. Instead, he drove through is garage door and went to a neighbor's house for help. Local and state fire investigators are still trying to pinpoint the cause of the fire.
"There was not one point that we have found that we can say, 'Here's where it started'," Sisson said. "It started several places at once, that's one of the things we're looking into with the lightning factor, with the electrical factors."
The population of Flora is just over 2,000, so the impact of the deaths is being felt not just by the families, but by the entire community.
"They've really left a big, empty place in a lot of our hearts and we're going to miss them," said friend Dawn Seward.
Now Brian Wagoner, a prominent dentist, will have to go on without his wife and children.
"He did everything he could possibly do. I mean, he's in there with hands wrapped up burned and he's got burn marks on his face. He did everything he possibly could do to get them out of there," said Jerry Reinke.
The family was very involved in their church, Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, where the funeral will be held Tuesday morning at 10:00. Leah and her children will be buried in the same casket. A friend said her children were her life, it's only fitting they be together in death.
