An early Friday morning house fire claimed the lives of a mother and daughter in North Philadelphia, authorities said.
Firefighters rushed to the home in the 3000 block of North 4th Street at around 3:330 a.m. to find two people trapped on a front porch, trying to evacuate.
That’s when they learned that four more people were stuck inside the basement of the home, where they lived.
A woman and her 6-year-old daughter died in the blaze. The mother’s boyfriend and an 8-year-old boy survived but the child remains in critical condition.
Investigators found the children in the basement’s bathroom. They said the boyfriend tried to save their lives by keeping them there.
“It sounds like the one male that was transported to Temple couldn’t get them out so [he] put them in the bathroom down there to try to keep them safe,”
“By time we got there, there was so much smoke trapped in that room,” said Philadelphia Fire Department Executive Chief Daniel McCarty.
Neighbor Ana Vasquez recalled seeing smoke coming out of the windows of the home.
“It’s a tragedy. They were outside yesterday, playing,” she said.
