TURNERS FALLS — A week after an overnight blaze killed a mother and four children in the small western Massachusetts town of Warwick, the church where the devout family had worshiped was filled to capacity as mourners gathered for their funeral Mass.

“This is not a routine funeral,’’ said the Rev. Sean O’Mannion, standing at the altar Saturday morning before five caskets draped in white cloth at Our Lady of Czestochowa Church. “Five children of God have been suddenly taken away.’’

Lucinda Seago, 42, and four of her five children — 15-year-old Nicholas, 12-year-old Martin, 9-year-old Demetria and 7-year-old Peter — had no way of escaping the fire that had engulfed their Richmond Road home in the early hours of March 4, causing the roof to cave in, authorities said.

The father, Scott Seago, who was among the mourners, and a 10-year-old daughter, Vivian, survived.

When a priest performs a funeral service, “it’s very often for someone they never really knew,’’ said O’Mannion. “But in this case, not only did we all know them, but they were a high-profile, if you will, part of our parish.’’

Lucinda was a member of a prayer group at the church, and Nicholas and Martin were altar boys, O’Mannion told the mourners.

“They traversed the distance from Warwick to Mass here [in Turners Falls], to get involved, to serve at the altar,’’ he said. “And everything is gone in a second — the blink of an eye.’’

The first 911 call reporting the fire indicated that everyone had escaped safely, but when firefighters arrived around 1 a.m., up to eight minutes after the call, they found Scott Seago and Vivian in the driveway, officials have said. Lucinda Seago and the four children were trapped inside.

Officials believe the fire began in a wood stove on the first-floor kitchen and spread.

Lucinda Seago was a nurse at the Farren Care Center, a nursing home in Turners Falls, as well as a tutor at Mount Wachusett Community College and a member of the Warwick Board of Health, according to an obituary on the website of the Kostanski Funeral Home in Turners Falls.

She was born in California and got a degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology and later completed her nursing degree at Mount Waschusett Community College.

The two oldest sons attended Pioneer Valley Regional School, according to their obituaries. Martin, a seventh-grader, enjoyed origami, math, and computer games; Nicholas, a sophomore in high school, liked computer and role-playing games as well as programming, and loved taking care of his youngest brother.

Peter, a first-grader at the Warwick Community School who enjoyed butterflies, paper airplanes, and also origami, “had an amazing memory for numbers and loved to read anything that came his way,’’ according to his obituary.

Demetria, a third-grader at the same school, loved sledding, frogs, bugs — and her sister.

After the funeral, the community gathered at the Warwick Community School, tables of food lining the walls of the gymnasium.

In the hallway, children crowded around a St. Bernard bigger than they were, with big jowls, and a tag that read, “P.T.S.D.’’

“Man, his paw is heavy!’’ exclaimed a young girl as she attempted a handshake with the massive dog.

Residents of the town, on the New Hampshire line about 30 miles north of Amherst, were relying on each other, as they always have and always will, they said — but this time around, animals were a key part of the healing process, because, as many people at the gathering said, Vivian loves animals.

Vivian, who was at the reception, spent a great deal of the week after the fire with the therapy dogs, according to Tom Wyatt, who chairs the town Broadband Committee on which Scott Seago serves.

“It was just what she needed, and what everybody needed,’’ said Wyatt.

At the reception, Warwick Fire Chief Ron Gates said the town’s firefighters — a volunteer force that also responded a year earlier to a fire in neighboring Orange that claimed the lives of two girls — are undergoing counseling, socializing together often, and “holding up pretty well,’’ all things considered. He reminded the public to check the batteries of their smoke detectors and practice an escape route.

Warwick residents set up an apartment in town for Scott and Vivian with donated items ranging from furniture to dishes to clothes, according to town coordinator Dave Young.

“There is nothing like small-town New England,’’ said Roberta Meehan, who doesn’t live in Warwick but used to work in the town and attended the reception as part of her work with the Salvation Army.

“Scott — he’s strong,’’ said Dan Dibble, pastor of the Metcalf Chapel at the Trinitarian Congregational Church of Warwick, at the reception. “He has a strong faith that his wife and children are at peace.’’

Connection, Meehan said, is the “biggest single thing’’ that everyone needs after a tragedy like this.

“Just look around,’’ said Dibble, gesturing at the gymnasium full of people eating, talking, and grieving together. “This is what community is meant to be.’’

Nicole Fleming can be reached at nicole.fleming@globe.com.