Fire investigators said Christa Adams told them she and her mother's companion tried to get her bedridden mother out of the bed as the flames spread.

She told him, "Let's go," as she ran outside to get help.

Neighbors saw the blaze and called 911.

"The whole house is on fire," said a 911 caller.

Firefighters said the home was fully engulfed when they arrived.

That caller heard Christa Adams pleading for assistance.

"It is a house on fire," said the caller.

Dispatcher responded, "Oh, it is a house on fire?"

The caller then said, "They are over there screaming for help."

Neighbor Randy Jenkins tried to help.

"Seems like I failed them, because they was my friends," said Jenkins.

He got to back door, but couldn't go inside.

"The flames were just too big. The smoke, the windows done busted out," said Jenkins.

When the smoke finally cleared, investigators found Angela Wilson in still in her bed.

Her companion, Ernest Adams, was found dead in the hallway outside her bedroom.

"I'm going to miss my uncle; that's the only uncle I got," said Adam's niece Ruth.

Devastated family members said Ernest Adams loved his church and Angela Wilson.

She suffered several strokes that left her bedridden.

"They stuck together. If you saw him, you saw her. He never went nowhere without Angie," said Ruth.

Those who knew him believe he died in the fire because he refused to leave Wilson helpless and alone.

"I am pretty sure he tried to help her. He wouldn't leave her alone," said family friend Willie Burris.

Fire investigators said together they faced a fierce blaze that completely gutted the inside of the house.

It left huge holes in the floor and burned everything so completely that determining the exact origin of this is difficult.

"There is so much damage inside the house that we have to go through it a little bit slower," said Jim Landis of the Gastonia Fire Department.

They have not been able to determine a cause of the fire.

Firefighters said this is a process that could take days to unravel.