JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Officials say two children were killed when a large and destructive blaze tore through a home in Jersey City late Wednesday night.
The deadly fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. at an apartment unit at 470 Martin Luther King Dr., according to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office.
Responding firefighters were met with heavy smoke and large flames burning throughout the apartment, authorities said.
Once inside, the firefighters say they found the two children, an 11-year-old girl and her 8-month-old baby brother.
The prosecutor's office said the girl was pronounced dead at the scene, while the baby was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead just before 12:30 a.m.
The mother of the victims and a 6-year-old boy were able to evacuate the home before firefighters arrived and survived, officials said. The identities of the victims have not been released.
A neighbor who was evacuated from her unit two houses down described the scary scene.
"The whole house was on fire, the whole house was burning," said the neighbor.
She said her family was escorted outside by police after people banged on her door late Wednesday night telling her and her family to get out.
"It was scary. It was scary as hell," she said.
Officials said the fire was reported under control at 12:07 a.m.
The prosecutor's office said the origin and cause of the fire remained under investigation Thursday morning, and that the cause of death for the children was pending with the medical examiner.
This story was originally published by Mark Sundstrom and Anthony DiLorenzo at WPIX.