Firefighters donned breathing apparatus and pulled Mathew Davies, 9, and Shane Davies, 6, out of the back of the burning house at about 7.30am yesterday. But ambulance officers were unable to revive them.

Neighbours said Mathew and Shane were good boys, but cheeky, and would often climb out of the bathroom window to go and play around the neighbourhood. But they said this time a wall collapsed on the pair, preventing them from making their escape.

Shane was to have celebrated his seventh birthday this Saturday. He was known as the quiet one. Mathew was known as more flamboyant, but both were regarded as inseparable.

“MUM, Mum,” the two boys yelled from the bathroom inside their blazing Housing Commission home in the NSW Hunter Valley early yesterday morning.

“Get to the window, boys, get to the bathroom window,” their mother, Lyn Andrews, screamed back.

“But then the screaming stopped, and there was nothing,” a neighbour and friend of the family said yesterday.

Firefighters donned breathing apparatus and pulled Mathew Davies, 9, and Shane Davies, 6, out of the back of the burning house at about 7.30am yesterday. But ambulance officers were unable to revive them.

It was the second tragedy to hit the region in a fortnight, coming after a triple murder-suicide of the Winter family near Maitland. A funeral service for the family took place on Wednesday.

Neighbours said Mathew and Shane were good boys, but cheeky, and would often climb out of the bathroom window to go and play around the neighbourhood. But they said this time a wall collapsed on the pair, preventing them from making their escape.

Neighbour Jamie Baxter said the boys “tried wetting a blanket and sticking it over themselves but the wall caved in”.

Ms Andrews and three other siblings, Kelly-Ann, who turned 13 this week, Brian, 12, and Lewis, 2, were taken to Maitland Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. They were later discharged.

Shane was to have celebrated his seventh birthday this Saturday. He was known as the quiet one. Mathew was known as more flamboyant, but both were regarded as inseparable.

“We were going to have a party at the house on Saturday,” 14- year-old Jamie said.

Their distressed father, who had not been living with the family in recent times, would only give his name as “Pommy” Davies.

When asked how he was coping he said: “You have no idea. I wasn’t here at the time. I raced over but … it’s bad, it’s pretty bad.”

A Department of Housing spokesman said there were two fire alarms hard-wired into the house’s ceiling and there was no indication the alarms had malfunctioned.