Paul Laughlin, 57, places stuffed animals on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019 outside a home at 1248 West 11th St. in Erie, Pa., where multiple people died in an early-morning fire.

ERIE — Three of five children killed in a fire at a home child care center were the children of a volunteer firefighter who was responding to another call, an official said Monday.

Luther Jones’ two daughters and a son were trapped in a blaze in Erie while he was responding to a call for what turned out to be a malfunctioning alarm, said Lawrence Park Township Volunteer Fire Chief Joe Crotty.

The children haven’t been formally identified, but the Erie Fire Department says the dead range in age from 8 months to 7 years. The owner was hospitalized after the fire Sunday. Erie fire officials say the children were staying overnight at a house that had been turned into a day care center.

The mother of Jones’ three children, Shevona Overton, who said she is also the mother of another child killed, said she had “lost a piece of me that can never be replaced.”

Fire inspectors and police detectives are working to determine the cause.