3 killed in Baltimore apartment fire

An intense fire torched an apartment building early Saturday, killing a woman, her niece and her son, who was turning 10 that day, fire officials said.

The blaze, reported at about 3 a.m., burned three apartments on top of one another in a three-story building in northwest Baltimore, said Fire Department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright. Eleven other families scrambled to safety on their own.

Firefighters found the victims in a basement apartment, Cartwright said.

The victims were identified as Raheem Muhammad, 28; her son, Royelle Riley, whose birthday was Saturday; and the woman's niece, Markia Summerfield, 7.

Investigators were seeking the fire's cause. It comes less than two months after a row house fire in the city killed eight people, five of them children.

Elsewhere, fire in a house at Henderson, N.C., killed a woman and her fraternal twins early Saturday. The victims had tried to escape and were found in the kitchen, victims of smoke inhalation, said firefighters in the city about 40 miles north of Raleigh.

The fire may have been caused by a malfunction in a window air conditioning unit, officials said. It was being investigated, fire officials said.

Relatives identified the victims as Stacy Moore, 34, a single mother, and her 12-year-old son and daughter, Kadarius Moore and Kadijah Moore.