ESCONDIDO (CNS) - Nearly $25,000 had been donated as of mid-morning Friday to help a family following a fire that killed a 5-year-old girl and left a 10-year-old boy critically injured at their mobile home in Escondido.
The preschooler and the second child, said to be her uncle, were trapped inside the home in the 500 block of West 15th Avenue as it burned early Thursday, according to Escondido fire officials.
The girl died at the scene, but the boy was pulled from the flames and subsequently hospitalized. A post on the GoFundMe.com page raising money for the Flores family indicated that doctors did not expected the boy to survive.
Seven other members of the extended family were taken to various hospitals mostly for treatment of smoke inhalation, authorities said. The American Red Cross was asked to assist them.
Escondido Fire Chief Russ Knowles said the official cause of the blaze was undetermined, but it may have been sparked by an electrical failure or a candle. No smoke detectors were found in the home.
Fire officials told reporters at the scene the fire appeared to have started near a Christmas tree.
It took 42 firefighters from Escondido, San Marcos and Vista about 35 minutes to subdue the flames, authorities said.
