The two children who died in a farmhouse fire this week in southwestern Minnesota were identified Friday as Hazel Thooft, 7, and her brother Isaiah, 4.
Funds on behalf of the family are being set up to help parents Bernadette and Matt Thooft and their five other children. They fled the flames about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon at the home northeast of the tiny town of Lucan in Redwood County.
The surviving Thooft children range in age from 2 to 11.
Searchers working Wednesday after the fire and into Thursday found Hazel and Isaiah many hours apart amid the burned-out shell of the two-story house on the 8-acre property, said a family friend.
Hazel was a second-grader at St. Anne's Catholic School in Wabasso, while Isaiah was attending preschool twice a week in the Wabasso School District.
Isaiah, who attended "Cottontail" preschool, "was a little boy with a sparkle in his eye and a contagious grin on his face almost all the time," said Wabasso Superintendent Wade McKittrick.
"He was an extremely happy boy who loved to come to school and play with the other children in his class. Isaiah was a smart boy with lots of energy and wit."
Family friend Ellie Shaw said that Hazel, a twin, "was fun-spirited" and loved to read, draw, sing and play her guitar. "She was always helpful [and] liked to play with other kids," Shaw added.
