(Photo: Mark Brady / Prince George's County Fire Department)CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. -
Prince George's County fire officials say a five-year-old girl has died Wednesday from injuries suffered in a fire at her family's two-story duplex home. Her 24-year-old father and her teenage uncle are in the hospital with critical burn injuries.
The fire occurred in the 6300 block of Carrington Court in the Chapel Oaks section of Prince George's County. The fire was reported around 4:30 p.m.
"[The father] was inside the house and he was hollering, ‘Help, help,"' said next door neighbor Janette Gibson.
Fire officials say the father suffered third-degree burns over the upper half of his body.
Friends and neighbors say it was a horrible thing they witnessed here after firefighters brought the two children out of the burning house on ladders.
"I just see the fireman running down the street with the girl on his shoulder, so I don't know if she was upstairs or downstairs. I just know he came out running with her, running to the ambulance," said neighbor Derrick Silver. "Then a couple of minutes later, they pulled the little boy out and he was lifeless too and the paramedics just kept pumping on his chest."
"They did what they were trained to do and they brought them out and they restored pulses before we got to the hospital with them," said Prince George's County Fire Department Chief Marc Bashoor. "They have a long, long road to go if they survive."
The 15-year-old boy and his older brother, the girl's father, were flown to the burn unit at Washington Hospital Center.
Bashoor said it is still unknown how the fire started and investigators are continuing to comb through the scene.
It took firefighters about 30 minutes to get the fire under control.
The home was equipped with two working smoke alarms.
