The Conyers fire has shaken the neighborhood, along with those who tried to save the children.

Lamonta Stroud lives across the street from the house on Pinedale Circle, in Conyers, where four young children died in the house fire that began just after 11’oclock Tuesday night.

Stroud, who had just returned home from a wrestling match, was still in his uniform when he heard the commotion outside. 

When he ran out he spotted his neighbor on the front lawn of the burning house.

"She was just screaming over and over, 'my babies.'"

The teenager ran in the burning duplex and up the stairs, but could not make it into the bedrooms where the four children were trapped. 

He then tried climbing a back balcony to the second floor, breaking a window and cutting his arm in the process.  But he could not rescue the kids.

The children, ages eight months to nine years, were found still in their beds.  They were pronounced dead at the scene.  A five-year-old brother survived after he was thrown out of the second floor window.  The children's mother suffered second and third degree burns over 40% of her body.  She's in the burn unit at Grady.

The first 911 responder to get to the scene was Conyers Police Sergeant Bill Connell.  He ran inside, with a fire extinguisher, but says it had no effect against the fire which, by that time, had fully engulfed the second floor.

"It was a combination of things (keeping him out)," says Connell.  "The heat, the smoke and the flames.  This wasn't like in a movie where you just run through the fire.  This was intense."

Connell says he is now trying to cope with feelings of frustration and helplessness after trying, but failing, the rescue the children.

"It's pretty gut wrenching, especially when it's kids," Connell said after returning to the scene of the fire.  "Most of us in law enforcement get pretty jaded to a lot of the stuff we see.  But, kids always....I've got a child and I see her face on every one of these kids when something like this happens."

So how does Connell cope with this tragedy?

"Go on with normal, although normal will never be quite the same.  But the more you can focus on what you do the better you can deal with this," he says. 

For Lamlnta Stroud, who knew all the kids who died, his feeling of loss is also mixed with frustration.

"People are going around saying I'm a hero," he says.  "I'm not a hero.  I didn't do anything.

"Four kids still passed away and there was nothing I could do."

Five agencies are investigating.  There is no cause as of yet, but police say they are not ruling out any possibilities.