By Samuel Spies
The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — A 4-year-old girl was found safe with relatives hours after a fire killed three people in the apartment where she lived, authorities said Friday.
Police Capt. Chris Bertram said firefighters found the badly burned bodies of a 30-year-old man, a 26-year-old woman and an infant Thursday in the apartment near downtown.
Names of the victims were not released, pending the notification of family.
The missing girl “was located late last night with family members,” Bertram said. “She will be remaining with them for the time being.”
Tax records had showed that up to five children may have been living in the home, but Bertram said Friday that only the infant and the girl lived there at the time of the fire.
The fire was confined to the apartment, and arson investigators were on the scene as a standard procedure, he said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
The fire was one of several that struck Thursday across the state. A wind-whipped blaze destroyed up to 35 townhouses in north Raleigh, though no injuries were reported, and in Durham, two people died in an early morning fire.