A 9-year-old girl was killed in a fast-moving house fire in Newark early Wednesday morning, authorities said.
The blaze erupted just before 2 a.m. at a three-story rowhouse on Astor St., according to WCBS. The top floor windows were burnt out.
In addition to the 9-year-old girl, who has not been publicly identified, two more children were injured in the fire, WABC reported. Eight children lived in the home, the Essex County prosecutor’s office said. The victim was pronounced dead at University Hospital.
“We tried to go up there and it just was too hot,” a good Samaritan told WCBS. “Went up there twice, then we went and got wet t-shirts, tried to go back up there again, couldn’t get in.”
The cause of the fire remained unclear Wednesday afternoon. The county prosecutor’s office is investigating the blaze.
Wednesday’s conflagration was the second house fire to kill a young girl in Newark in the past six months.
Two girls, ages 8 and 6, were killed when a similar blaze erupted on Oct. 20 in the city. That fire started during a birthday celebration for one of the girls, and investigators said they were playing with fire near a couch in a hallway.
Though witnesses said first responders arrived within minutes, both girls were pronounced dead at the scene, according to NJ.com.
“It’s just horrible,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said afterward. “The firefighters were visibly shaken up.”