Two girls dead in NJ blaze after playing with fire at birthday party: officials

A pair of young girls died tragically during a birthday party at a New Jersey home Sunday after authorities said the two were “playing with fire” during the festivities.The 6- and 8-year-old youngsters were pronounced dead at the Newark house shortly after midnight, while eight others were injured in the blaze, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said.“Witnesses told detectives there was a birthday party for one of the girls on the second floor of the residence,” prosecutors said in a press release.

“Witnesses said the girls were playing with fire near a couch in the hallway.“Detectives … concluded the fire originated on the second floor and spread to the third floor.” The origin and cause of the fire remains under investigation, prosecutors said.Three families live inside the Eckert Avenue home in the city’s Weequahic section, according to NJ.com.Next door neighbor Shonda Simpson described the chaotic scene when the flames burst out, telling the outlet that there was “a lot of screaming and crying and hollering.”“First responders were here within two or three minutes, along with our mayor, who was out here all night,” Simpson said.

“Despite the efforts of our first responders we still lost two babies.”County prosecutors said the two young victims were found “severely burned” inside the home.Lynwood Duncan, a tenant in the house, told 1010 WINS radio that he has complained to the landlord that there were code violations in the building, including furniture blocking the hallway.“Multiple families were living on the porch,” he said.

“Yesterday they said they were having a birthday party.With the birthday party and stuff, they brought all the furniture out, and they put it in the stairwell.

“Thank God I was at my son’s house, because if I was home, I wouldn’t have been able to get out.”...