Two young girls and their father were killed overnight Friday when their California apartment caught fire and he rushed back in to try and rescue them.
“My family, my family,” a woman could be heard screaming as firefighters battled the flames, which spread quickly, Fox 11 Los Angeles reported.
“It’s my understanding that one of the victims, the 41-year-old male who was the father, and he went back inside to rescue other family members that were not able to get out, and he wasn’t seen alive after that, unfortunately,” Lt. Nate Miller of the Hemet Police Department said, according to CBS 2 Los Angeles.
His daughters were 4 and 12.
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Miller said an infant and the children’s mother appear to have survived, the station reported.
But another member of the family, an 8-year-old boy, was in critical condition at a hospital.
“The fire was rapidly spreading, so they (the firefighters) were confronted with immediate rescue needs, as well as keeping the fire contained to the building of origin,” Hemet Fire Chief Scott Brown said, according to CBS 2. “These buildings are old, they don’t have fire stops, fire spreads very quickly.”
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Video from the scene shows a number of firefighters rushing to evacuate the building as quickly as possible, Fox 11 reported.
The fire left 40 residents of the building homeless, the station reported.
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The cause of the fire was under investigation.