Two brothers, age 7 and 4, died in a house fire Monday night in the hamlet of Harkness, in the town of AuSable.

Penny Stone, 23, was at the home of Victor and Starr Burnham that night, babysitting the Burnhams’ three children: 7-year-old Tucker J. Burnham, 4-year-old Payden A. Burnham and 6-month-old Raelynn S. Burnham. Stone had brought her own two children, aged 2 and 4, with her to the Burnhams’ house at 918 Clintonville Road, about 4.5 miles north of AuSable Valley Middle/High School.

The three Burnham children were in a bedroom when Stone entered it around 9:30 p.m. and found it engulfed in flames, state police said.

“The flames and heat were considerable enough that she couldn’t enter into the room to get anyone out of there,” Lt. John Coryea of the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation told the Enterprise.

Asked whether Stone was just routinely checking on children in bed or whether something else prompted her to go to the bedroom, Coryea declined to answer, saying that detail of the case is still under investigation.

After trying unsuccessfully to extinguish the fire, Stone fled with her two children next door to the home of the Burnham children’s grandmother, Cynthia Burnham, who went into the burning house and into the burning bedroom. Cynthia was able to rescue Raelynn, the infant, but efforts to rescue Tucker and Payden were unsuccessful due to the intense heat and smoke, police said.

A Clinton County 911 dispatcher had received an emergency call about the fire around 9:30 p.m., and state troopers, the Keeseville and Peru fire departments, and other local fire and rescue personnel responded to the home. They found it engulfed in flames upon their arrival, according to state police. Firefighters were eventually able to control and extinguish the fire.

Raelynn Burnham was taken to Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh and then transferred to the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in Boston. She was listed in critical condition there Tuesday, according to state police, and Coryea had not heard of any change as of this morning. At the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital, public relations director John Sugden Jr. said the hospital was respecting the Burnham family’s request that information about Raelynn not be shared with the media.

Cynthia Burnham suffered burns on her feet and hands when she went into the bedroom to retrieve Raelynn, Coryea said.

After the fire was extinguished, the two deceased children were located inside the residence. Clinton County Coroner David F. Donah responded to the scene and authorized removal of their bodies to the CVPH morgue, where autopsies were completed Tuesday. Coryea had not seen the results of those autopsies as of this morning.

The New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control led the investigation into the cause and origin of the fire, along with state police BCI and the Clinton County fire investigator’s office. The field investigation is completed, but officials weren’t ready to release a report this morning because aspects of the investigation are still pending, according to Randy Shadic, deputy chief of the Office of Fire Prevention and Control.

Clinton County Emergency Services, the AuSable Forks and South Plattsburgh fire departments, and Peru and CVPH emergency medical services also responded.