Two young children died in a New Jersey house fire just hours after a birthday celebration. The fire broke out at a multifamily home just before midnight on October 19. Tragically, the victims, a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old girl, allegedly played with fire prior to the fatal blaze. The incident has rocked their Newark, New Jersey, community.
Witnesses told Fox 5 the family, which was not publicly identified, tried to save the girls but were unsuccessful. Emergency responders pronounced the girls dead on the scene. Experts are working to determine exactly what happened.
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Multiple people called 911 for help.
According to Newark Engine 18’s post on Facebook, several people made emergency calls.
“Companies were alerted for a house fire with multiple calls. The first due company had heavy fire on the 2nd floor with reports of multiple people trapped. 18 engine was the second due engine on this assignment. 18 stretched a line and was working on the second floor. This was a 1st tour job,” the post reads.
“I called 911. First responders were here within minutes, and they came strong,” neighbor Shonda Simpson told CBS New York. “People were doing whatever they could do get the kids out and it wasn’t doable.”
Police found the girls unresponsive.
CBS News reported that according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s office, that detectives found the girls lying unresponsive with severe burns. Emergency crews attempted to resuscitate the girls, but they died at the scene.
“Beautiful girls, beautiful family,” Simpson said of the family.
Some say the girls had been playing with fire earlier in the day.
According to the prosecutor’s office, witnesses said they saw the girls playing with fire near a couch in a hallway prior to the deadly blaze, Fox 5 reported. Police confirmed the fire began on the second floor and spread to the third but did not disclose the exact cause of the deadly fire.
Andrew Simpson told Fox 5 he tried to help the children’s father by giving him a ladder, but he couldn’t reach his girls.
“I was crying. I didn’t want them to see me crying,” he told Fox 5.
Some say a lot of people were living in the building.
Linwood Duncan, a neighbor who left home before the fire, told CBS New York he stayed at his son’s the night of the fire. He added that the unit reportedly housed many people.
“There were two different families on the sun porch and there was another family that lived on the second floor. I’m only here by the grace of God, because they had took the furniture out of the front room on the second floor and put it inside the hallway. So I wouldn’t have been able to get downstairs. I thank God that I’m here, but I’ve lost everything,” he said.
Another neighbor told the news outlet, “I’m also left with nothing. I lost my things. I have nothing. Tomorrow I go back to work and I don’t have shoes or anything.”
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The children's deaths saddened the community.
Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger Leon said in a statement obtained by Fox 5, “We are profoundly heartbroken by the loss of two of our beloved students following this morning’s tragic fire at 26 Eckert Avenue. Our deepest condolences and prayers go out to their families during this unimaginable time of grief.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
