UPDATE: Mother Succumbs To Her Injuries, Her 4 Yr Old Daughter In Critical Condition; Horrific Midnight Hour Apt. Fire (1000 block Stanley Ave.)Horrific Midnight Hour Apt. Fire (1000 block Stanley Ave.)

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UPDATE: Mother Succumbs To Her Injuries, Her 4 Yr Old Daughter In Critical Condition; Horrific Midnight Hour Apt. Fire (1000 block Stanley Ave.)

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(Mar. 27, 2014) -- LBREPORT.com is saddened to report that we learned today (Mar. 27) from LBFD that the 47 year old mother, rushed in critical condition to a local hospital, succumbed (Mar. 26 at roughly 3 p.m.) to injuries she sustained in the horrific fire described below. LBFD says her 4 year old daughter remains in critical condition at Torrange Memorial Center's Burn Unit.

(March 26, 2015) -- A horrific midnight hour apartment fire just east of Cherry/10th St. escalated to a second alarm with thick black smoke pouring from a third story unit as neighbors frantically tried to rescue the unit's residents, firefighters made entry -- with the fire still burning, extingushing the blaze as they searched -- and found a mother and child in a bedroom...who were transported to a hospital in critical condition. Two family dogs died in the blaze in the 1000 block of Stanley Ave.

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LBFD Public Information Officer Jake Heflin says units were dispatched at 12:05 a.m. (March 26) to the fire, which was independently visible from LBPD's helicopter Fox (at 12:07 a.m.)...and Engine 10 arrived on scene at 12:09 a.m. (within four minutes of dispatch. A second alarm was caleld based on the size of the building (a three story residence-over-garage "garden style" nine unit apartment building.)

PIO Heflin says firefighters arrived to find thick black smoke on the third story, made an aggressive interior attack and saw other residents of the nine unit building trying desperately to break a window that led into the bedroom from a balcony area. They were unsuccessful, pushed back by what PIO Heflin said were tremendous heat and smoke.

Firefighetrs made entry, conducted a primary search (as they simultaneously worked to extinguish flames) and found two individuals in a bedroom lying on a bed: a 47 year old woman and a 4 year old child.

Firefighters immediately began lifesaving intervention [recall: the fire is still burning at this point] and the patients were transported to a hospital in critical condition, PIO Heflin said. (Two other residents of the fire-ravaged unit were not at home at the time of the blaze.)

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These were all rapidly unfolding events; fire knockdown was reported at 12:20 a.m.

Roughly fifty firefighters were assigned at the fire's height. Investigators are on scene and continue to look into the cause and origin of the fire, which is undetermined at midmorning (Mar. 26.)

Regarding smoke detectors, PIO Heflin says there were smoke detectors but it's currently unknown if they were operational (which is part of LBFD's ongoing investigation.)

PIO Heflin said the tragic events are a reminder to ALL LB residents to check the batteries in their smoke detectors -- both battery operated detectors and hardwired detectors (which have battery backups) -- and to do so twice a year; a good time is with the shift from standard to daylight time and vice versa twice a year, which just occurred.