Unbearable Grief as Three Sisters Killed in Christmas Day Fire are Mourned The scene on Thursday outside St. Thomas Church in Manhattan where a funeral service is being held for three young sisters who were killed in a Christmas Day fire in Connecticut. Mourners gathered at the august Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue on Thursday, to remember the three girls killed in the Christmas morning fire that ravaged the waterfront home in Stamford, Conn., of their mother, Madonna Badger. As funeral staff carried flowers and other adornments into the church, attendees were handed programs with a picture of the girls -- each with a wide smile -- and the dates of their births and deaths. Lilian Elizabeth Badger: August 29, 2002 - December 25, 2011. Sarah Hudson Badger and Grace McCarthyBadger twin sisters: October 15, 2004 - December 25, 2011. Family friends embraced each other on the church steps, saying little. Some wore sunglasses to conceal tears; some donned fur coats. When mourners walked into the sanctuary, attendees were greeted with holiday wreaths along the church walls. The church was filled to capacity well before the service began. The program said that three songs would be performed to honor the three sisters: "Amazing Grace," "This Little Light of Mine," and "Over the Rainbow" will be performed on honor of the girls. Members of Stamford's fire rescue team arrived around 9:45 a.m. Ms. Badger and the girls" father, Matthew Badger, and otger family members were expected to arrive shortly before the service was to begin. The girls were killed, along with their grandparents, during a Christmas morning fire that engulfed Ms. Badger's waterfront home in Stamford, Conn. Ms. Badger and a family friend, Michael Borcina, escaped the blaze, but the family and firefighters could not rescue the three sisters. Mr. Borcina told fire officials he had tried to flee with two of the girls, but perhaps amid the chaos of the smoke and flames, the girls apparently panicked and turned around, according to the Stamford fire chief, Antonio J. Conte. The third child was found sitting atop a stack of books near a window of the home, Chief Conte said. It is believed that the girls" grandfather, Lomer Johnson, may have placed them there to help his granddaughter escape. The fire began, officials said, after Mr. Borcina removed embers from the fireplace about two hours before the fire erupted and put them in a bag, which he then placed in either the house's mudroom or an adjacent trash enclosure. Family and close friends attended a private wake on Wednesday at the Frank E. Campbell funeral chapel, the Upper East Side home that has handled the funeral services. Thursday's memorial was to be followed by a private service at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.