Two young girls were killed in a mobile home fire this weekend that also killed multiple pets and left three others hospitalized in Murrieta.
The fire was reported around 4:40 a.m. Saturday in the 41000 block of Knight Drive, where crews found a mobile home, a carport, three vehicles, two outbuildings and a large pine tree fully engulfed in flames, the Murrieta Fire Department reported.
“Firefighters immediately entered emergency rescue mode initiating an aggressive fire attack while simultaneously searching the structure for trapped residents,” the department said.
The residence’s structural integrity became compromised by the fire, which forced firefighters to transition to a defensive firefighting operation. The fire was extinguished in about 45 minutes.
Two people — who were later identified by the Riverside County coroner’s office as females — were pronounced dead at the scene along with multiple pets. Three other people were rushed to a hospital with unknown injuries.
A friend of the family, Andrea Raikoglo, created a GoFundMe page identifying the victims’ parents as Stacey Hale and Adam Keenan, and said Hale remains hospitalized after the fire and lost her eyesight. A third child survived the fire and is now living with Hale’s brother, according to the post.
No further identifying information on the children was immediately available.
The cause of the fire was being investigated by the Murrieta fire and police departments.