DAVENPORT, Ia. — Sue Wilson watched the 10 p.m. news Thursday when the words "breaking news" flashed across her screen: There had been a fire at the Five Seasons trailer park, the broadcaster said, and firefighters carried out a woman and at least three children.

The 78-year-old woman, watching from her home above the restaurant she has owned for 20 years in Davenport, called her granddaughter, Briana Smead, worried. Kelsey Clain, the mother of four of Wilson's great-grandchildren, lived in that trailer park.

Smead texted Clain to check on her. Smead saw the video; it didn't look like Clain's trailer, she told herself. But no text ever came back. A phone call the next morning brought devastation.

Clain, 23, and two of her children, Jayden Smead, 5, and Carson Smead, 2, died after their trailer caught fire in the 5100 block of North Fairmount Street in the trailer park. Her other children, Skylar Smead, 4, and Isabella Smead, who was born in March, were rushed to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

They have since been pronounced dead, authorities said.

"My heart just sank," Smead, 23, of Davenport, who is sister to the children's father, said during an interview Tuesday morning in her grandmother's restaurant, Mary Sue's Cafe. "I couldn't believe it."

Investigators determined there were no working smoke detectors in the trailer, which may have delayed alerting the people inside. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Wilson and Smead last saw Clain and the children Dec. 17 when she took them to eat at Wilson's cafe. They sang, laughed and ate while the boys played. Wilson gave Clain money to take the children Christmas shopping; she likes to think Clain bought a stuffed animal that firefighters pulled from the home with that money.

Smead recalled thinking Skylar, with her distinct big, blues eyes, had grown so much since she'd last seen them. Wilson remembered Jayden, who looked most like his mother, stomping his feet and saying he didn't want to leave.

"I love you, Grandma," Clain told Wilson before they left. "I’ll try to get here more often."

MORE: 4 dead after fire in small eastern Iowa town of Blue Grass

The children were happy and energetic, Wilson said. She described them as beautiful, handsome and in the care of a loving mother who watched them like a hawk.

Smead remembered the day Jayden was born: When the doctors brought him to Clain and Smead's brother — the father of the four children — the pair lit up with joy. As he grew older, Jayden loved to wear superhero outfits.

"He'd wear Halloween costumes all year round," she said.

When Smead went to visit Skylar and Isabella in the hospital, she was hopeful they would be alert and greet her like they always did. Instead, doctors removed Isabella's respirator Monday, Wilson said. When she visited them, Wilson noticed the little girl was burned badly; Skylar, on the other hand, looked asleep. The family plans to donate their organs.

Wilson said she is glad that Clain and the children are not suffering. She said the kids were in heaven "pulling golden wagons they got for Christmas."

The family is asking for the public's help in paying for the funerals and medical bills. Donation can be made here or by calling the Runge Mortuary and Crematory funeral home at 563-391-6202.

On Christmas morning, four days after the Davenport fire, another blaze killed four relatives at a house in Blue Grass, about 10 miles west of Davenport.