2-Year-Old Triplets Injured in Fire

All three were unconscious when they were pulled from the home, Oglesby said. They were taken to Children's National Medical Center as more than 75 firefighters from Montgomery, the District, the nearby National Institutes of Health and other jurisdictions descended on the home. The blaze was extinguished in less than 30 minutes, shortly after 2 p.m.

Like other residents, Francesca Goodall, who lives next door to the Petrucellis, was visibly shaken. Her three children had been inside napping when her nanny entered the home screaming "get the children out," Goodall said.

"I thought she was exaggerating, because I looked outside and only saw a little black smoke, but then a second later, the whole house and the tree next door were on fire," Goodall said.

Piringer estimated that the fire might have burned for 15 minutes or more before anyone called 911. "That's an eternity in the life of a fire," he said.

Authorities did not identify the Petrucellis' nanny. Petrucelli's wife, Amisusan, was traveling out of state, neighbors and fire officials said.

Michael Petrucelli served as acting director of citizenship and immigration services in the Department of Homeland Security before leaving in 2005 to take a job as a federal lobbyist. Last year, he was named to then-presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani's immigration advisory board.

His home, known to some neighborhood children as "Santa's Workshop" because of the elaborate Christmas decorations that appear each year, was still standing but gutted in many parts. A stroller for three, a children's slide and several toys littered the front yard, along with coils of dripping wet fire hose. Piringer estimated the damage at $500,000.

Piringer said investigators have an idea why the fire spread so far before anyone called 911: There was no sign of working smoke alarms in the home.

Staff researcher Madonna A. Lebling contributed to this report.