2 Children Die of Fume Inhalation : Palmdale: Six other people are injured when they are overcome by carbon monoxide in a home they shared.

Two children died and six other people were hospitalized--two in critical condition--Saturday after two families were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in the home they shared, authorities said.

The children, ages 6 months and 3 years, were pronounced dead at the scene, said Charlotte Kramer, a dispatcher with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Their parents, both 24, were in critical condition at Palmdale Hospital Medical Center, Kramer said.

The second family--a 36-year-old man, his 42-year-old wife and their two children, a 6-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl--were hospitalized at Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center in Lancaster. They were in stable condition, Kramer said.

Firefighters received a 911 call shortly before 7 p.m. from a member of the second family who complained of nausea and respiratory problems, Kramer said.

Southern California Gas Co. officials said the fumes originated from a wall heater or the kitchen stove. But Kendall Morphis, a dispatcher in the utility company’s Monterey Park office, said officials cannot confirm their suspicions until gas company workers are allowed in the house.

Homicide investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department also were investigating the incident at the house in the 38000 block of 3rd Street East, said Erma Becerra, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

Names of the victims were not released.