William and Zachariah Brice: Family 'devastated and heartbroken' after 2 Virginia brothers die in a house fire

CLIFTON, VIRGINIA: A Virginia family is reeling with the tragic deaths of two young brothers who were hospitalized after they suffered severe 'life-threatening injuries' in a house fire last week. According to a Facebook post, James Brice announced that his two sons, Zachariah, three, and William, six, died on April 14.

“We are devastated by these horrific events and heartbroken life-threatening that we lost our amazing sons,” Brice wrote, adding “Our prayers along with all of yours have been answered, just in a different way. It wasn’t what we William and Zachariah Brice: Family 'devastated and heartbroken' after 2 Virginia brothers die in a house firepicked, and we are learning to surrender and trust God more and more.”

When did the incident take place?

Zachariah and William were rescued after their family’s home in Clifton, Virginia, caught fire on April 10. In a Facebook post shared that day, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department wrote that authorities responded to a two-alarm house fire and that there were reports of two trapped occupants. 

In a later update to the department's Facebook post, officials added that five occupants were transported to a hospital, with two of them carrying “life threatening injuries." The two boys were being treated in the ICU. 

Both the victims were unresponsive for almost an hour

As per the reports of NBC-affiliate WRC-TV, William and Zachariah were unresponsive for 45 minutes after firefighters pulled them out of the blaze. At the time of the incident, Brice and his wife were at work when he heard about the blaze and rushed home, as per WRC. The two boys, along with their brother Logan, eight, were under their grandparents' care when the fire broke out.

According to neighbors, via WRC, Logan called 911 and the grandparents tried to get his brothers but weren’t able to. 

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the Brice family

A GoFundMe campaign created to help the family said the boys had “severe smoke inhalation injuries.” Brice said that Zachariah and William had “symptoms consistent with brain death in an update on April 11. “We have peace in knowing they are both with Jesus and have heard ‘well done good and faithful servant,’” Brice later wrote in his April 15 Facebook post. 

“We also have peace knowing that we got more days with them on Earth as we learned they should have been lost in the fire that day. Our heart aches because we want them here, but we have a strong hope knowing that we will see them again and will do our best to share their legacy of love, and joy and encouragement for everyone they met,” the post continued.

Brice added that he is asking people to continue praying for the family and to “give us the space we need this week to make some very difficult decisions…We appreciate all the support, but we just need some time to be mom and dad.”

A prayer vigil was held at a local church for the Brice family on April 11, DC News Now reported.