House fires kill 14 in U.S. cold snap

CHICAGO (Reuters) - House fires in Kentucky and Tennessee on Tuesday killed 14 people, 10 of them children, officials said.

It was not immediately known if heating problems caused by bitter cold that has gripped a large part of the United States played a role in the two fires.

The Nelson County Emergency Medical Services agency said six children and four adults died in a pre-dawn fire in Bardstown, Kentucky, in a one-story brick house. Two other people were injured.

The Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper reported the victims were all part of an extended family.

In far eastern Tennessee, a nighttime fire in a frame house in Friendsville killed four children aged 7 to 14, though their parents escaped, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported.

Temperatures were below freezing in both locations and both fires were under investigation.