No one had yet figured out what lay in store for her quiet baby sister, Iris, 4, who often tagged behind.

The pair died in an explosion early yesterday morning that leveled their 65 Main St. home, devastating family and friends who affectionately called them "the flower garden."

"How can they be gone?" said Tiffany Germain, the girls' aunt, her red eyes brimming with tears. "They were just showing us their Power Wheels Barbie car and we were cracking up."

The sisters dressed alike and were known as "the twins," despite their differences, family members said as they gathered in the Milford home of grandparents Cindy and Paul Germain.

Iris was a dark beauty with the deep blue eyes and the brown hair of her mother, while Violet's golden hair and light blue eyes resembled those of her father.

And their personalities couldn't have been more different.

Violet, a charismatic child, loved to pose and often acted as protector to her little sister, who was reserved.

"Iris is quiet, but not Violet," said family friend Mary Carlson of Milford.

Violet loved to be read to and used big words like 'adventuresome,' said grandmother Cindy Germain, who cared for the girls at her home this past weekend. Germain is Tara Carey's mother.

"I can't believe they're dead," she said while sifting through piles of their photos in her bedroom. Germain took the girls to see Stuart Little 2 on Saturday.

"They were always so loving, always telling you they loved you. I can't believe they are gone."

The girls' parents sat grief-stricken in Germain's home at 8 a.m. yesterday, watching news reporters recount the tragedy on television. Heath Carey crawled out and rescuers helped his wife, Tara Carey, out of the home. They were treated at Milford-Whitinsville Regional Hospital for minor injuries.

"I loved them so much," Tara Carey sobbed as family and friends hugged her shaking body, clad in a blue hospital jumpsuit.

"I don't know what to do."

Her husband, Heath, stood silently crying with his hands over his eyes. He also wore a blue jumpsuit.

Rescue crews pulled a still Iris from under the collapsed home within minutes of arrival thanks to direction from her father, fire officials said.

The little girl, her hair gray with soot, was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and rushed to Milford-Whitinsville Regional Hospital suffering from cardiac arrest. She was pronounced dead around 3:20 a.m., authorities said.

Violet wasn't freed from the wreckage until almost five hours later. Firefighters had to leave the gas-filled home after they determined she was dead.

Crews went back inside when NStar shut off the gas around 6 a.m. They lifted a bureau and lumber off the girl, who had been sleeping beside her sister in their parents' bed.

"We had to physically move some lumber, jack some lumber, to get them out," said Lt. Francis Clark, a 27-year veteran who pulled both girls out of the bedroom.

Clark said debris fell around the bedroom, forming a pocket that may have saved the little girls' parents. The falling wood and furniture, however, were too much for the sisters to endure.

"I could crawl up in there and get on top of them to dig them out," he said. "It's really sad. Sometimes this job sucks."

Family friend Carlson said Tara and Heath Carey could not save their daughters.

"The last thing they heard from Iris was her gasping and the last thing they heard from Violet was her saying, 'Mummy, I can't breathe,' " she said. "Here you are, you're their parents and you're supposed to protect them and you can't."

Violet was to attend kindergarten at the Center School in Hopkinton in September. She had just graduated from the pre-kindergarten program at the YMCA in Hopkinton. Iris was scheduled to follow in her footsteps this fall.

Tara and Heath, married almost five years, lived in the home for three years hoping to save up to buy a house. They opened their own "alternative life" clothing business, freakandfrolic.com, in downtown Milford two years ago.

Buma-Sargeant Funeral Home, 42 Congress St., Milford, has donated its services and all costs for the girls' funeral.

Calling hours are 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday. A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Monday in St. Mary's Church, Winter Street, Milford. Family members said plans are now under way to place the girls together in a Worcester mausoleum.

Memorial donations can be made out to: