ST. AMANT- Firefighters held a small memorial service for two kids who were killed when the car they were riding in plunged into a bayou last year.

"[Thursday night] makes one year since the St. Amant Community was struck with the tragic accident that took the lives of two beautiful angels," said James LeBlanc, the town's fire chief.

Faith Castilaw, 9, and her sister, Patience Lobell, 7, died in a late-evening crash on Stringer Bridge Road when the driver, their mother, ran off the pavement and into water.

LeBlanc remembered the dispatch: "the exact words... we have a vehicle in the bayou... with small children possibly entrapped."

The 911 recordings are just as emotional. Frantic witnesses, describing a car sinking with youngsters inside.

"The vehicle's underwater," one person phoned. Their voice was crackling in the recordings, seemingly with a mix of panic and desperation.

Thursday evening, as rain fell, the small group placed flowers, signs, and a cross near the crash scene.

"We have faced death more than we could ever imagine... but the death of these two beautiful girls would change the lives of so many people in this fire department and community," the chief said.

**********

Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmaltz