A mother, father and four children who perished in a fire inside their vacation trailer are being recalled as an active, boisterous family by a friend who rented them the Amherst, N.S. farmhouse where they lived.

Colin Smith said he was close to the father, 30 year old Robert Jorge (R.J.) Sears, and his friend's life centred on working hard and enjoying his young family alongside his partner, 28 year old Michelle Robertson, at their home in Amherst, N.S.

The 44 year-old recalls their bustling household included a cat, a dog and a bearded lizard, and he has strong memories of all four children playing on the swings, leaping onto trees and bouncing on a trampoline in the yard as Robertson kept an eye on them.

R.J. Sears' father, Robert Tony Sears, has identified the children who died in the travel trailer as Madison, 11; Robert Ryder, 8; Jaxson, 4, and Colin J. (C.J.), 3.

The family died in a Passport Ultra Lite trailer, which at the time of the blaze was on a property in Millvale, a rural community about 45 kilometres southwest of Amherst.

The RCMP has said the family was at the camper for a weekend, and police found their bodies in the trailer on Sunday evening.