Four family members, including two children, died early Wednesday when a fire rushed through a house in Slidell’s Eden Isles subdivision.
Chris Kaufmann, Chief of St. Tammany Fire Prevention District No. 1 called it a tragic situation and said they have never lost a family like this in a residential house fire in his 34 years in Slidell. Kaufmann added this it was just not something that is normal for firefighters to deal with.
Officials said the fire claimed the lives of four of five family members, including children just 5 and 10 years old. The family’s fifth member, a teenage sibling who was visiting his mother’s residence on the south shore, was located and notified that the rest of his family had perished. This was done after firefighters braved flames and heavy smoke to confirm he was not in the house.
The parish coroner, Dr. Chuck Preston, identified the victims as Phoenix Lousteau, 33; her husband Stephen Lousteau, 40; and their daughters Payton, 5, and Mackenzie, 10.
Dr. Preston will conduct autopsies on the victims, but he says there were no signs of burns on the bodies and believes all four died from smoke inhalation.
Kaufmann said neighbors were the first to report the fire after two propane tanks exploded on the house’s back porch around 1:30 a.m.
Both the fire chief and the coroner said early indications were that the family members likely died of smoke inhalation that might have been prevented had the residence been equipped with working smoke detectors in each bedroom.
