Neighbors said that a barefoot man known as Hang jumped from a second-floor window, breaking his toe and several teeth. His face was covered in ash, and he told neighbors that he was asleep when the fire broke out.
It took 43 minutes to get the fire under control, Ayers said, and two boys were found dead in a second-floor front room.
Neighbor John Sanders watched as Hang and his older brother sat on the curb.
"Just to see how distraught they were that they couldn't get their brothers out of the house . . . I cried," Sanders said. "It was really sad."
Sanders, 44, who lives across the street, said he tried to get into the house, but flames were shooting from the windows.
He and other neighbors disputed reports that the home was a boardinghouse. Neighbors said the family was from Cambodia.
Ayers said that 12 people lived in the house, which had beds in every room, but that three were not home at the time of the fire.
Some neighbors were angry that the fire station closest to them, Engine 61 - stationed 1.36 miles away, on Rising Sun Avenue near Somerville - was out of service at the time of the fire as part of city budget cuts.
Instead, Engine 51, which is 1 1/2 miles away, on Old York Road near Widener Place, was the first to respond. Ayers said that the first vehicle on the scene arrived in five minutes and that the first firefighting vehicle arrived within 30 seconds of that.
"The first-in company is very important," said Mike Kane, an executive board member of Firefighters Union Local 22. "There's a reason these companies are where they're at."
Two men were taken to Temple University Hospital with severe burns, police said, while a 28-year-old woman, suffering from smoke inhalation, and four children - ages 2 months to 10 years old - were taken to Albert Einstein Hospital in critical condition.
Two of those children were transferred, one to Temple University Hospital and the other to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Ayers said.
Several neighbors said the home was overloaded with appliances and kerosene heaters. Ayers said firefighters found a lot of appliances and electrical heaters plugged into adapters.
"If you have an electric heater, plug it directly into the wall, not an electrical strip," Ayers said.
Ayers said there was one smoke alarm in the basement that did not have batteries and was at least 15 years old. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
