ANTELOPE, Calif. — An elderly man and his wife died after their home caught fire in Antelope early Tuesday morning.
Family and friends of Lawrence 'Larry' Monroe and Shirley Wolf say they're heartbroken over the loss after their son tried to save them.
"It's hard for me, like I've known them so long. They're like family," said family friend Vyacheslav Onishchenko.
Onishchenko has known 80-year-old Larry Monroe, 79-year-old Shirley Wolf and their son Eric Wolf for about a decade.
"I remember Larry would always walk his mom out because she was disabled, so she always used a walker, but he always walked her out, always said hi. (They were) a very sweet couple, very family-oriented and very nice people," said Onishchenko.
The home is now boarded up and a fence surrounds it.
ABC10 tried to speak with the couple's son, Eric, who arrived to open the gate and said his mother fought for four hours before she died.
"He's broken down. He just lost his mother and stepdad," said Onishchenko.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District says the son was inside the home when the fire started around 12:30 a.m.
Onishchenko says Eric heard what sounded like wind chimes, saw the fire and called 911. The couple was sleeping in their back bedroom.
"He (Eric) told me that he woke up to some wind chimes inside the house and he's like, 'They're not supposed to go off.' So right when he got out, he noticed the smoke and the fire, so they were barely able to get out. But when he tried to go back in to help his parents, he couldn't get in cause the fire was so intense," said Onishchenko.
Investigators do not suspect arson as the cause of the fire. Firefighters say they don't know if a working smoke detector was in the home. The cause of the fire is currently being labeled as undetermined.
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