Special Forces solider does five tours of combat duty, comes home, house catches on fire, escapes, goes back in to save his two kids - and all three die.
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HOPE MILLS, N.C. (AP) ? A decorated Green Beret leapt from the second-story of his burning home early Tuesday, wrapped himself in a blanket and ran back inside in an attempt to save his two young daughters.
Firefighters recovered the body of Chief Warrant Officer Edward Cantrell on the second floor of his North Carolina home, not far from the remains of 6-year-old Isabella and 4-year-old Natalia.
"He never made it back out," said Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County sheriff's office.
Cantrell's wife and the girl's mother, Louise, also jumped from the second floor. She was treated and released from a Fayetteville hospital for smoke inhalation. The family dog, a Rottweiler named Sasha, also survived the fire.
Cantrell was a special forces paratrooper who served six tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friends and relatives gathered to recover what they could from burned-out house in Hope Mills, a small community about a 20-minute drive from the gates of Fort Bragg.
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