Two parents were killed and at least 72 more people displaced when a fire ripped through a New Jersey apartment building early Sunday morning, authorities said.
The blaze in Plainfield started around 1 a.m. in a top floor apartment at 308 West Front St., WCBS reported. The apartment was home to two adults and their two children, neighbors said.
All four residents were rushed to a nearby hospital, but the two parents were pronounced dead, according to WABC. The two children, who were spotted sprinting out of the building by the superintendent, survived and have been released. The victims have not been publicly identified.
“They didn’t have no clothes, no shoes, it was freezing, I take off my jacket and give to them and ask, ‘Where is your mother, where is your father?’” superintendent Hugo Fernandez told the station.
Fernandez also said he tried to enter the apartment where the fire began, but it was a “total nightmare inferno, black smoke, I couldn’t breathe – so dangerous.”
The building had 24 units, and 72 people were left without a place to sleep on Sunday night, NJ.com reported. Plainfield Mayor Adrian O. Mapp told WCBS some residents could return as soon as Monday. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
