SURREY, British Columbia, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Two young girls died in a home fire in Surrey, British Columbia, Tuesday despite frantic efforts by neighbors and firefighters to save them, witnesses said.
The Vancouver Sun reported about a dozen people awakened shortly before 7 a.m. saw a man and woman on the roof of their second-story home as smoke poured from the building.
"They were trying to tell us, 'help us out, help us out,'" one neighbor, Tony Johal, told the newspaper. "(The man) said 'my child is inside.' We tried to break the window and break the door but it was too late."
A Surrey firefighter was burned over 30 percent of his body trying to reach the two girls, the report said.
"There were a lot of heroic efforts from neighbors and obviously the firefighters doing the search," Deputy Fire Chief Jon Caviglia said.
Authorities hadn't released the name of the family but neighbors identified the dead girls as Sejal, 4, and Priya, 2.
Seven members of another family who lived downstairs escaped alive, though five were injured, the Sun said.
The cause of the blaze was unknown.
