Rhea Mahbubani

Child Dies in Two-Alarm Vallejo House Fire

A child died Sunday morning and two people were injured in a two-alarm house fire in Vallejo, officials said.

The fire broke out on the 800 block of Stella Street at 9:53 a.m. and callers reported heavy smoke and a 5-year-old possibly trapped inside the single-family residence, according to officials. 

Fire crews were "met by many neighbors trying to assist in getting the one victim out, who was found in a back bedroom of a fully involved bedroom," said fire department spokesman Mark Libby.

The sight of flames and thick smoke pouring from windows prompted the fire department to call a second alarm and make an "aggressive interior attack in an attempt to locate the victim," Vallejo fire officials said to NBC Bay Area via Twitter.

However, efforts to "immediately try and rescue the victim" were unsuccessful, said Libby, who did not specify who the victim was. 

Neighbor Jossilene River said she heard screams coming from the house.

"I heard like a lady screaming for help and to call 911," she recalled.

Jeff Ames, who lives nearby and saw the flames and smoke, called the police and even tried to extinguish the fire. He "took the hose and went in the building," but only made it into the living room, he said.

Ames said he hosed down the female burn victim, but regrets being unable to do more.

"I feel a certain grief," he said. 

Others, like James Little, stumbled upon the bad news. 

"I was just hoping that it wasn't my little friend that speaks all the time," he said.

Three ambulances were called to the scene. A woman with second- and third-degree burns was transported to Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center as was a teenager with minor burns, officials said.

"Our thoughts go out to family and neighbors," Libby said.

Firefighters have been able to knock down the flames, and an investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, according to Libby. Officials have yet to identify the victims.

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