A mother and her adult son were killed in an early morning house fire in southwest Atlanta, neighbors told Channel 2 Action News.

Witness Lynn Blake said she could hear the man and woman screaming for help from inside the two story house in the 10 block of Pope Street.

“Traumatizing,” she told the news station. “You could hear the screams. They stopped.”

She described the scene.

“Bursting flames,” Blake said. “Fire was humongous.”

A man and woman were killed in an early Thursday morning house fire on Pope Street in southwest Atlanta. (BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM)

Credit: BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM

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Credit: BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM

Firefighters who responded to the blaze just after 1 a.m. Thursday had to use a ladder to access the second floor because the first was filled with flames, Atlanta fire Sgt. Cortez Stafford told Channel 2.

“One of our companies went inside the second floor that was heavily involved with fire and flames through the roof and they were able to get the victims out, but unfortunately it was too late,” Stafford said.

While investigators are still on scene working to determine the cause of the fire, preliminary findings indicate the blaze started in a corner on the front porch and spread upward, officials told Channel 2.

investigators are still on scene working to determine the cause of the fire. BOB ANDRES / BANDRES@AJC.COM
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In other news:

No one was hurt when the fire broke out in Norcross.