Two young girls tragically died after reportedly playing with fire near a couch during a birthday party.
The girls, aged 6 and 8, were at the celebration that was being held for one of them on Sunday morning, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Witnesses said the girls were on the second floor of a home in Newark, New Jersey, ‘playing with fire near a couch in the hallway’, stated the office.
Detectives with the office’s arson unit found the bodies of the girls on the ground ‘severely burned’.
First responders performed life-saving measures on the girls, but they were both pronounced dead at the scene.
Next-door neighbor Shonda Simpson said she heard ‘a lot of screaming and crying and hollering’.
‘First responders were here within two to three minutes, along with our mayor who was out here all night,’ she told NJ.com.
‘Despite the efforts of our first responders, we still lost two babies.’
The victims were not immediately identified.
Decorations including ‘Happy Birthday banners still hung on the doorway of the home as Newark arson officials entered to work the scene.
An investigation indicated that the blaze started on the second floor of the home on Eckert Avenue and spread to the third floor. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE : Trump sells shirts of himself serving at McDonald’s as fast food chain distances itself
MORE : Lost hiker survives four nights thanks to dog ‘sleeping on her to keep her warm’
MORE : Girl, 6, left behind for two hours during school trip to pumpkin patch
Get your need-to-know
latest news, feel-good stories, analysis and more
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
