Mother and Daughter, 4, Killed in Fire as Rescue Attempts Fail

A 34-year-old woman and her 4-year-old daughter died in a fire that gutted their single-story home in the Country Club Park area early Tuesday morning, authorities said.

Fire crews, who arrived before 7:30 a.m., found the bodies of the girl and her mother, identified as Alicia Cruz by family members, in the bedroom of their bungalow-style home. Firefighters put out the blaze by 7:43 a.m., said Brian Ballton, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Most of the house, on the 1300 block of 2nd Avenue, was destroyed, with the kitchen the most extensively damaged, fire Capt. Carlos Calvillo said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, authorities said.

Cruz had moved into the house, in a neighborhood west of downtown, a few months ago with her three children and their father, said Gladys Gomez, 42, a neighbor.

On Tuesday, the father had already left the house to take the two older children to school and then head to work, Calvillo said.

The two older children were with relatives after the fire.

Neighbors smelled smoke around 7 a.m. and several called the Fire Department.

Richard Figueroa, 21, saw the fire as he was driving by and was told there was a child trapped inside. Figueroa, a Marine, shattered a window with his arm to attempt to rescue the victims, according to Calvillo. He was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

San Diego resident Jose Umama, 27, also a Marine, was visiting friends next door and was awakened by shouts that the neighboring unit was on fire.

The two Marines pulled the iron bars from another window, but did not find anyone in the room they entered. Umama said he took off his shirt, covered his face, crawled into the living room through the front door and made it a few feet before turning around.

“We did our best,” Umama said, his head dropping as he stood on the porch of his friends’ house.

Ashes and bits and pieces of the family’s life were all that remained. A child’s math notes, charred clothing and remnants of kitchen supplies lay scattered in the blackened home.

Cruz “was very kind, very considerate,” said Refugio Garcia, 39, who identified herself as the woman’s cousin. She pushed back tears. “We used to play together in our little town in Oaxaca,” Garcia said in Spanish.

“She was very caring,” she said. “She cared very much about her children.”