What is YOUR priority?

GRAHAM, Wash. - Three girls died despite efforts by their father and firefighters to save them as fire swept through a Graham home after midnight Sunday.

The girls' father and stepmother made it out of the burning home alive, said Deputy Fire Chief Gary Franz of the Graham Fire Department.

The girls were at the home for a weekend visit with their father, Leonard Ballard, who lived there with the girls' stepmother. Neighbors said the girls usually visited every other weekend.

Family members identified the three sisters as Michaela Ballard, 10; Emily Ballard, 11; and Katelyn Ballard, 13. The two younger girls attended Pioneer Valley Elementary School in Spanaway, and the oldest girl attended Bethel Junior High.

Fire crews were called to the scene at about 12:04 a.m. By the time they arrived, about 10 minutes later, flames and smoke were pouring from the single-family home, at 25301 103rd Ave. East in Graham.

The father and stepmother were able to get out of the house alive, and the father attempted to rescue his daughters.

When firefighters arrived, they found the girls' father unsuccessfully trying to rescue his children by using a ladder to reach a second-floor window.

Franz said firefighters took over the rescue effort when they arrived. One fireman went up the ladder into a second-story room, but had only about one minute to search the room before his partner warned him to leave because of the fast-moving flames. The fireman did not find any of the girls.

Firefighters suspended the rescue effort until they could knock down the heat and flames. When they re-entered the house, they found two of the girls dead. The third was found a few hours later.

"We made every effort to rescue them, but unfortunately we were unable to do that," Franz said.

Franz said it took one hour to get the fire under control and more than four hours to completely extinguish the blaze. He said the house was "virtually destroyed."

There are reports of explosions before the fire erupted -- sending huge flames shooting into the sky around midnight. But how the fire started is still a mystery.

Franz said the girls' father and stepmother were sleeping in a basement at the home at the time of the fire. He said the father's hair was burned in his rescue attempt, but he did not have to be hospitalized.

Franz said the three sisters were sleeping in the upper area of the two-story house and the home was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

The fire raged through the upper floor of the two-story home. Soon after fire crews arrived, the roof collapsed, complicating firefighting efforts.

Franz said it's been at least 10 years since there has been a fire death in the Pierce County town of Graham, and losing the three victims is very hard on fire crews.

"Losing people in a fire is very difficult on firefighters," he said. "It hits everybody pretty hard."

"Our hearts go out to the family, and our thoughts are certainly with them," Franz added.

Franz says it appears there were working smoke alarms in the house, and that fire crews could hear them as they arrived at the scene.

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A fund has been set up to help the family of the girls. To donate, you can call the Tacoma-Pierce County Chaplaincy at 253-564-7848 and ask about the “Ballard Family Fund.”

I found this, not a Sex Offender topic, nor political but wanted to share this with everyone.

What is YOUR priority?

I would have died in that house before I would have left my children in there, whether I thought I could get to them or not. I cannot tell you the whole story, as the father can only say that. But I noticed the He and Stepmother made it out alright. Is that the parent that you want to be?

I do not know what I am capable of doing, I cannot say what tomorrow will bring. One thing I can say for certain is that my children would be the first out of the house in a fire. Don't preach to me about saving the children until you can know that they are the most precious things to save.