CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Family members gathered for a prayer Wednesday morning in honor of a 9-year-old boy and his grandmother who were killed Monday in an east Charlotte house fire.
Firefighters said they pulled 9-year-old Boe Reh and 62-year-old Saw Mo out of their burning home on Latchington Court and tried performing CPR, but they were both pronounced dead at the scene.
Channel 9 learned Boe Reh was going to turn 10 in just a few days and his grandmother had come to Charlotte with her family as refugees from Myanmar.
Wednesday morning, about a dozen family members and friends gathered for a prayer service in their native dialect.
They do not speak English well but a man who told Channel 9 he also came to the area from Myanmar has been working with them and he said that one of the family members had come home from work at around 4 a.m. and sensed that something was wrong.
”He smelled something like smoke from somewhere and then he said he woke up and checked. At the same time he saw fire from the outside, so it wasn’t from the inside it was from the outside,” family friend Francis Ngereh said.
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Firefighters said the fire started from a stone cooking device outside the home and then spread to the screen porch in the back.
Everyone was able to get out except for Boe Reh and his grandmother.
The family is planning a vigil Friday night with other members of the community. On Saturday, they’re holding a funeral.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs of the service.
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