HEMET, CA – A fast moving fire in a Southern California apartment complex Friday killed two girls and their father, who died after he got some of the family to safety but returned to try to rescue his other children, police said.
The family of seven was asleep when the fire broke out in their second-floor unit in the apartment complex in Hemet, 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, said Lt. Nate Miller.
“I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”The wife of the man who died told police the fire started in their apartment, Davis said in the statement.
It was difficult for firefighters to prevent the blaze from spreading to other apartment units, Hemet Fire Chief Scott Brown told The Press-Enterprise.
“The fire burned very rapidly, consumed everything in that apartment very quickly and unfortunately it led to … death,” Brown said.