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CLEVELAND - Cleveland Fire Department investigators are searching for the cause of a blaze that killed three people Wednesday night.

The victims, a 29-year-old man and 3-year-old twins, were trapped behind a wall of flames that blocked a back stairwell in the two-story home on Clark Avenue.

Charles Robinson Jr., the older brother of the twins, says "we tried to stay with them but the smoke just overcame us. We had to run out."

The children's mother, Brenda Robinson, returned home to Cleveland from Virginia on Thursday after her husband called with news that 3-year-old Jordan Robinson and his twin sister Jessie died in the fire.

Charles Robinson Sr. tells Fox 8 News, "They were beautiful. They were sweet. I just loved them. I don't know why they, they're just gone."

Also killed was 29-year-old Luis Rentas, who was overcome by smoke when he tried to save his 4-week-old daughter Jessica, who somehow survived and is being treated at MetroHealth Medical Center.

"So far, she's doing OK. Her pulse is good. Her heartbeat is good. Her liver is good. But they said that she's having seizures," the surviving child's mother, Sherry Robinson, said.

Fate intervened on behalf of two of the other children living in the house. They were attending an event at Scranton Road Bible Church, which had reached out to the family after learning how destitute they were.

Pastor Joe Abraham says, "Materially, emotionally, spiritually, the first time they came to church, they came without shoes on."

Fox 8 News has learned that the Robinson home was the focus of an investigation by Cuyahoga County Children's Services. It started with a complaint in June about educational neglect. We are told that some of the children in the house were not going to school.

Children's Services director Deborah Forkas says a case worker paid a visit to the home two days before the fire and reported nothing out of the ordinary.

Meanwhile, fire investigators say the home had a smoke detector, but they're not sure if it was working.