Mother, 2 children die from apartment fire injuries

A mother and two of her daughters died after an apartment fire early Monday morning.

They have been identified as 32-year old Magaly Mendoza, 11-year old Andrea Garcia, and 4-year-old Paulina Ortega. Andrea was a sixth grader at Armendariz Middle School in the El Paso Independent School District.

“The students, faculty and staff at Armendariz Middle School is deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Andrea Garcia. Andrea was part of our Armendariz family and losing a member of our family is tough. We will work to make sure our students and teachers — as well as Andrea’s family — get the support they need to cope with this tragedy. We ask the community to keep Andrea and Armendariz Middle School in their thoughts as we mourn this loss,” Lorenzo Muoz, principal at Armendariz Middle School, said in a statement.

All three had been transported to University Medical Center where they died from their injuries.

Fire Marshal Orlando Arriola told ABC-7 the fire may have been caused by a skillet that was left unattended on the electric stove, which then ignited the cabinets and the walls, and spreading throughout the small apartment. It has not been determined definitively that the skille caused the fire and the investigation continues.

Perla Mendoza, 22, carrying her infant daughter, and 33-year-old Lizette Gomez were able to escape the fire through the apartment’s front door.

An El Paso Fire Department spokesman originally said that a 16-year-old girl had been transported in critical condition and did not mention that a 32-year-old woman had been transported to the hospital in critical condition. A 16-year-old girl was not transported to the hospital.

El Paso fire crews were called out to an apartment fire at around 4:30 a.m. at the Las Casitas apartment complex in the 9500 block of Sims. The fire was extinguished at about 5:15 a.m.

A fire spokesman sayswhen crews arrived, a woman handed them a baby and said there were three others inside.

At that point, firefighters crawled inside the extremely hot apartment searching for the others. They found them one by one and all three of them were transported to area hospitals in critical condition.

The fire department spokesman says putting out the fire was made more difficult because the heat was so intense that the fire hose melted when they first went into the apartment building.

The incident commander tells ABC-7 that in all his three decades of experience, he has never seen that happen with a fire hose.