Cleveland ? A fire broke out at a crowded house during a children’s sleepover early Saturday, killing seven kids and two adults, the fire department said. The fire was so hot it scorched the frame of the home jet black and forced back neighbors who rushed in to help.

Eleven people were in the house when the blaze started about 3 a.m., and two children were there for a sleepover, Assistant Fire Chief Brent Collins said. The victims included a woman and four of her children; two people at the house survived.

The cause was unclear Saturday evening, but Fire Chief Paul Stubbs said the initial investigation indicated the fire at the 99-year-old home was an accident.

Richard Carter told WKYC-TV that he lost his daughter and several grandchildren in the blaze.

“I just want somebody to pray for me and my family,” he said through tears as he trembled in the chilly spring air.

A victim identified as Media Carter was well known in the neighborhood for welcoming her children’s friends into her home, offering them rides to school and hosting sleepovers. Authorities said Carter, who was in her 30s, lived in the house with her six children.

“She treated me like a son,” said Devon Cabeza, 14. He said he played basketball with one of the victims, an eighth-grade classmate.

Spectators sit across the street from a house fire where nine people died in Cleveland, Saturday. The fire broke out during a sleepover early Saturday, the fire department said.

Four of Carter’s children, 15-year-old Davonte Carter, 13-year-old Moses Williams, 12-year-old Maleeya Williams and 7-year-old Fakih Jones, died in the fire, Collins said.

Also killed were Media Carter’s 34-year-old sister Sheria Carter, and Sheria’s son Antwone Jackson, 14, Collins said. He identified the other victims as Jackson’s cousin Ernest Tate, 13, and a friend, 13-year-old Miles Cockfield.

A coroner’s official said some bodies were so badly burned that DNA testing will be needed to positively identify them. Fire investigators identified the victims by interviewing family members, said David Fitz, a spokesman for Mayor Jane Campbell.