A pre-dawn fire ripped through a South Philadelphia rowhouse on Friday, leaving a woman and a 4-year-old girl in critical condition and sending a thick plume of smoke over the nearby Oregon Avenue commercial strip.
The blaze erupted just before 5 a.m. on the 2600 block of South Mildred Street, a residential stretch tucked just off Oregon Avenue. According to CBS News Philadelphia, crews arrived to find heavy smoke pouring from the home. The woman and young girl were rushed from the scene to the hospital, where officials said both were listed in critical condition.
Video shared on the Citizen app showed fire trucks and ambulances lined up along Oregon Avenue as smoke hovered over the block. Authorities have not yet released a cause for the fire and say the case remains under active investigation.
Fire response and investigation
The Fire Marshal’s Office typically takes the lead on residential fire investigations in Philadelphia, documenting the scene, interviewing firefighters and witnesses, and collecting physical evidence…