UPDATE: May 18, 3:50 p.m.
Police in Maple Shade on Thursday, May 18, announced 7-year-old Hope Marles has died. The news comes 10 days after the little girl was injured in an apartment fire that also killed her 12-year-old brother, AJ, and injured a handful of others, including their mother.
Shannon Marles, 35, was also initially hospitalized in critical condition. Investigators say she is now considered stable.
Officers say organs and tissues from both of the children have been donated to the Gift of Life Donor Program. The fire is still under investigation.
Original article follows
MAPLE SHADE, NJ (KYW Newsradio) — Six people were hurt, dozens were displaced, and at least one person died after a fire broke out at an apartment complex in Maple Shade, Burlington County, Sunday night.
Authorities say the 911 calls went out around 10:30 p.m. for a fire on Adams Drive at the Fox Meadow Apartments, a large complex just off Route 73.
Before cops and firefighters arrived at the scene, neighbors like Joseph Stackhouse frantically got out to knock on doors.
“We all tried to help and get everybody out of their apartments,” he said. “There were people sleeping that didn’t even know. I talked to a man last night that was still asleep in his apartment with a CPAP machine on and he was breathing in smoke through his CPAP machine.”
Fire crews from Maple Shade and nearby towns responded to the calls. Authorities say they plowed through doors to get those who were still inside their apartments out to safety. It’s not clear if all the smoke alarms were working at the time. It took them a little more than an hour to get the fire under control – 16 units were damaged, Maple Shade Police said.
Six people were taken to hospitals for treatment, officials said. Their conditions were not released and it is not clear if they were all in one unit together. But police say a 12-year-old boy died and his 7-year-old sister and mother are in critical condition.
The Red Cross is helping 12 families – 40 people in all – of the 22 that were displaced by supplying them with shelter, food and clothes.
“I’m concerned for everybody that lives here because everybody saw anything could happen at any given time with a fire,” said resident Brian Beebe.
State and local fire and law enforcement agencies are investigating the cause of the fire.
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