Five children die in a house fire, their father only able to save two of his seven children. Courtesy: FOX 9

IT’S the most agonising choice any parent would ever have to make.

This is the terrifying moment a widowed father raced to save his family from a house fire, and ran out of time.

Troy Lewis, 60, scrambled to rescue all seven of his young children from a fire in their home in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Saturday (AEST).

But Lewis, with time running out, could only save daughters Shaca, 9, and Electra, 5, as the others tragically perished, the Daily Mail reports.

Lewis’s heart was already broken when his young wife, Kim Davis, 31, died from cancer last November. Now he again has to bury his kin: Mary, 6, Christopher, 8, Fannie, 5, Troy, 3, and Gwendolyn, 19 months.

“I wanted to get all of my babies,” Lewis sobbed from hospital, where he and his remaining children are being treated, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

“All of my babies. I wanted all my babies.”

Lewis’s toughest choice came after saving Shaca when he discovered his son Christopher, dead in his bedroom.

Instead of staying in the room to look for Fannie and Troy, he moved on to other areas of the house — believing he had a greater chance of finding his other children alive.

“He (Christopher) was dead,” Lewis said. “I saw him burned. I saw my baby burn.

“I had a choice to make, a dead child here or ... a live one.”

That’s when he grabbed Electra, and ushered her to safety. Quickly realising he was now in danger of losing his own life, Lewis had to make yet another heartbreaking call.

“I ran back upstairs to get the third child, that’s when I stopped,” he added.

“I couldn’t do it no more. Out of seven, I have two. I have to be strong for them.”