A dispatcher is describing the desperate efforts to save five children who were killed in a southern Missouri mobile house fire as "heart-wrenching."

The Kansas City Star reports that Lori Embry says a firefighter's voice was breaking with emotion Wednesday morning as he described over the radio being unable to open a window to the home in the town of Lebanon. The Laclede County Sheriff's Office dispatcher said the firefighter, who was the first to arrive, could see a mother and a baby. The woman was flown from the scene, but crews couldn't reach the baby or other children in time.

Family friend Kim Henry friend says the surviving woman is the mother of two of the children who died. The other three were nephews. Their names haven't been released.

More From AM 1050 KSIS