Twin toddlers die after pulled from backyard pool on Long Island

MELVILLE, Long Island (WABC) -- Twin toddlers have drowned in a backyard pool on Long Island.

The Melville Fire Department was called to the scene on Holly Court just before 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Officials were on the scene in two minutes and found one child near the pool. They were informed that a second child may still be in the pool, so four firefighters jumped in to find him.

The water in the pool was dark and green because it was undergoing renovations, so it took the firefighters several minutes to find the second boy. They eventually found him at the bottom of the pool.

The 3-year-old twin brothers, identified as Nicholas and Anthony Aurilia, were taken by ambulance to Plainview Hospital, where they later died.

"Our emergency department staff worked feverishly in hopes of a different outcome, sadly it was not to be," hospital spokeswoman Andrea Mineo said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragic situation."

The mom was home at the time. Suffolk County Police Detective Lieutant Kevin Beyrer said she had just awakened, looked out the window and saw one of the boys floating in the pool.

She ran outside and administered CPR while calling 911 on a speaker phone. She told rescuers that she didn't know where the other boy was.

"I called my husband at home, and even he's crying," neighbor Anu Lamba said tearfully. "When I pick up my boys, my grandsons, from the camp, I'm going to give them the biggest hug. And I wish this never happens to anybody, anybody, at all."

The woman's 5-year-old son was also in the house and did not go into the pool. The boys' father had reportedly just left for work.

Authorities say the family had just moved to the home at the end of June. A spokesman for the Town of Huntington said the fence around the pool was up to code, and that the family had proper alarms. It is unclear if the alarms went off, but the property had been inspected as of June 23.