Four children die in house fire in Elmira, New York

ROCHESTER, New York (Reuters) - Four children have died in a house fire in Elmira, a city in the southern tier of New York state, a fire official said on Saturday. The Elmira Fire Department responded to the blaze on Friday night and found the four children inside, said Elira Fire Marshal Joseph Martino. They were rushed to local hospitals for treatment but all four children succumbed to their injuries and died, said an Elira police statement. The blaze, in this city of about 29,000 residents that is 85 miles south of Rochester and near the border with Pennsylvania, happened in the town's south side. Martino would not say if anyone else was in the home at the time of the fire and he declined to immediately release the names and ages of the children. It was not clear if the children were related to each other. The deadly fire is being investigated by the Elmira Police Department, Elmira Fire Department and the New York State Fire Investigation Bureau. (Reporting by Caurie Putnam in Rochester, Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Sandra Maler)