Child Killed In Perth Amboy House Fire Friday

PERTH AMBOY, NJ — Tragedy in Perth Amboy Friday morning, Feb. 2: A child was killed in an early-morning house fire in Perth Amboy. The fire broke out inside a home on Commerce Street just after 3 a.m. today. A boy perished in the blaze, the Perth Amboy fire chief announced.

The home had multiple families living there and neighbors said they were woken up so the sounds of cries and screams as people rushed out of the burning home in the dark. Eight people in total were evacuated from the home, but one adult is still unaccounted for.

"At this time it's a tragedy," Chief Edward Mullen, Perth Amboy Fire Department told ABC 7. "A juvenile male passed away due to this fire and an occupant who is unaccounted for at this time."

A neighbor said she saw a mom struggling to get out of the burning building with her two young children; one of them may be the child who died.

"I looked again outside and it was spilling flames all over the place," Adonys Viloria told ABC 7. "The kid had some burn marks on his hands and on his arms and the lady was burnt."

The woman was trying to get out with two children and lost track of one of them, she said. The door shut behind her and she could not get back inside, she said.

Image via Morguefile