As flames shot from windows of a home teetering on collapse, Robert Spencer saw his neighbor approach from the glow, her face blackened and burned.

He had been awakened Thursday by the sound of shattering glass followed by a whoosh shortly after midnight.

“Where are the babies?” Spencer asked Katie Malone as the heat grew more intense.

“It’s three of them in the back yard,” she answered quietly, walking toward Spencer as if in slow motion, a numb look on her face.

“Where are the other ones at?” Spencer asked.

1 of 13 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Photos from the scene of fatal house fire in Baltimore View Photos A Baltimore fire official says six bodies, believed to be missing children, have been recovered from a home destroyed in an early-morning blaze. Caption A Baltimore fire official says six bodies, believed to be the missing children, have been recovered from a home destroyed in an early-morning blaze. Jan. 12, 2017 Firefighters exit the charred remains of a house that collapsed during the blaze in Baltimore. The fire injured four family members, and six children are presumed dead. Andre Chung/for The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

“Upstairs.”

Spencer wanted to rush inside to rescue the children, but the flames were too intense.

Hours later, after firefighters combed through burned rubble by hand and used a cadaver dog in their search, they recovered six bodies believed to be the children of Katie and Bill Malone.

The fire in Northeast Baltimore devastated the Malone family, whose nine children ranged in age from 11 years to 9 months and often played on the porch of the house with white siding.

“It’s hard for me to imagine losing one child, but to lose six in an instant is very, very difficult,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), who identified Katie Malone and her family Thursday. She has worked for the congressman for almost 11 years as a special assistant in his Catonsville office.

An 8-year-old daughter helped two of her younger brothers escape to the back yard. They and their mother remain hospitalized, and the cause of the fire was under investigation.

Authorities have not released the names of the children, but they include 3-year-old twin girls, an 11-year-old girl, a 10-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy. The final body recovered was of a 9-month-old boy, discovered in a crib on the first floor.

“It was horrendous, so it’s hard to say if they were trying to make an escape or not” from the collapsing three-story home, Baltimore Fire Department spokesman Roman Clark said.

The children’s father was at work when the fire struck, according to Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who spoke near the smoldering structure.

The fire on Springwood Avenue broke out about 12:30 a.m. Flames engulfed the home, and the high heat caused pieces of cars parked nearby to melt. Neighbors watched as fire swept the house and the roof caved in. The blaze grew so hot that some felt the heat through their bedroom windows.

“It felt like summer out here,” said William Lohmeyer, who lives across from the Malones. “There was no way to go anywhere near the house.”

After seeing the fire from his bedroom, Spencer raced to the street. “The floors started collapsing and you can see it coming down,” he said. “It was like you were in the movies.”

Watching the flames as firetrucks began to arrive, Spencer said, “we heard the babies crying.”

Firefighters were on the scene three minutes after the first dispatch from 911, officials said. But when they pulled up, the floors of the home had already cratered.

Firefighters “immediately went into a blitz attack and tried to extinguish the fire to make an entrance,” said Clark, the spokesman. “The fire had gotten so far ahead of us that it made it very difficult for them to even get inside.”

One firefighter suffered minor injuries.

When Fire Chief Niles R. Ford arrived, the fire was nearly extinguished — and firefighters were on bended knee.

“They said, ‘Chief, we did all we could,’ ” Ford said.

Crews turned to a recovery mission, using special equipment to methodically locate the missing children and giving a grim early update: “We have not heard any cries,” Clark said before any of the bodies were recovered.

The children’s father told fire officials that there was a smoke detector in the house and that he had recently changed the battery, according to Pugh and fire officials who spoke at a news conference.

Frank Amtmann, 37, of Towson, Md., is the godfather to the Malones’ oldest child.

He went to high school with Bill Malone, who he said is a veteran of conflicts in Iraq and Kosovo. Bill and Katie met when they both worked at a pet store, Amtmann said.

“They’ve lost literally two-thirds of their kids,” Amtmann said. “It’s just horrific. . . . Everyone’s in shock.”

Friends were in awe of the couple’s parenting skills. “They were able to give each and every one of them lots of attention and take care of them,” Amtmann said.

The children were a very visible and important part of Katie and Bill Malone’s lives. Neighbors said the children were always playing together on the porch.

One time, when Katie Malone was interviewing students for a Naval Academy class as part of her work for Cummings, one of her daughters was near, seated at a desk reading a book. Many described the family as close-knit and loving.

Walt Sanders, the owner of Sanders Auto Repair, which is around the corner from the Malones’ house, said he first noticed the family in the neighborhood two to three years ago.

He said the kids were very well-behaved — whether walking by his shop or playing in their front yard.

“You never heard anything except kids playing,” Sanders said.

Baltimore has seen several recent deadly fires.

In December, there were twice the number of fire deaths compared with the previous year, according to the Baltimore Sun. Among those who died in the recent incidents were a 90-year-old woman and four children.

Clark, the fire spokesman, said of the recent tragedies, “We cannot wrap our arms around this.”

Ford said the Malones did a good job of teaching the children to take care of each other and commended the 8-year-old who got her 4- and 5-year-old brothers out of the burning home.

“She’s a hero in my book,” the fire chief said of the girl. “We would have possibly three more fatalities if she wouldn’t have done that.”

On Thursday night, crews continued to clear the once-smoldering debris. As curled siding peeled away from the house frame, a red scooter, pink tricycle and little log cabin playhouse remained in the yard, signs of the family that once lived inside.

Peter Hermann, Dana Hedgpeth, Jenna Portnoy and Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.