Two die in New Jersey apartment fire

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LIVINGSTON, N.J., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Two people, a father and his 7-year-old son, died in an apartment house fire in Mount Olive Township, N.J., firefighters said.

Hesham Moustafa, 52, a donut shop manager, was found Monday in his smoky, first-floor apartment, slumped over the bathtub containing the boy. Both were pronounced dead after they were carried from the building. Fire fighters carried an unconscious and unidentified girl from the building, who was taken to Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J. and is listed in critical condition, the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger reported Tuesday.

It was unclear if the boy was Mustafa's son or stepson, the newspaper noted.

Chief Frank Zeller of the Flanders, N. J., fire company, said firefighters brought the girl through the front door, then re-entered the burning apartment and found the father and son in the bathroom, whom they carried through a bathroom window and attempted to revive.

"They had no vision," he said of the firefighters. "It was black. Very heroic. They went through fire."

Moustafa's wife, Carmella, escaped the fire, accompanied by one of her daughters, the newspaper said. A sixth occupant of the apartment was not at home when the fire broke out.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, authorities said.