Story highlights Six bodies have been recovered

Mother and three children are hospitalized

(CNN) A fire early Thursday ravaged a Baltimore home and a family, injuring a mother and three children and killing six other siblings, officials said.

Neither neighbors nor firefighters could save those trapped in the house as it burned just after 12:30 a.m.

"(Firefighters) were exhausted. They were in the front yard on one knee, and they saw me and they said, 'Chief, we did all we could,' because they knew the kids were in the house," Baltimore Fire Chief Niles Ford told CNN affiliate WBAL.

12 hours later and smoke still coming from home where 6 kids are presumed dead in NE Balt. #wbal pic.twitter.com/QaLFluvIrA — Jennifer Franciotti (@wbaljfro) January 12, 2017

The blaze was so intense it melted a nearby car.

"I know (the deceased children) couldn't come out. They couldn't. They were trapped. And we heard that kids were yelling. They were yelling," neighbor Robert Spencer told CNN affiliate WJZ.

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