A 10-year-old and 13-year-old were among those injured in the blaze

 

A 34-year-old woman is dead after a four-alarm house fire ripped through a home in Elmhurst, Queens, on Monday, Feb. 9. Two children were among the nine people injured, and one person is still missing, according to authorities.

The Fire Department of New York said in a press conference on Monday, Feb. 9, that at 6:45 p.m. local time, authorities were alerted to a “heavy” house fire at a two-story home on Dongan Avenue. The fire initially began on the first floor, CBS News reported.

“The fire quickly spread to exposure one, exposure two and exposure four,” the FDNY Assistant Chief David Simms said in the press conference. “Four people were reported to have jumped out of the rear windows, and the First-Due Ladder Company rescued two from the second floor.”

Due to the fire’s “large volume,” it spread quickly, requiring the transmission of four additional alarms.

The FDNY was alerted to two people missing from the building, both believed to be living in the basement.

As a result, the specialized rescue unit searched the basement and “immediately” found one deceased victim. CBS News reports the victim was a 34-year-old woman. Her identity has not been made public.

“Due to a localized collapse, we could not search the rest of the basement, and there remains one person unaccounted for at this time,” Simms said. The rescue unit continued the search on Tuesday, Feb. 10, per CBS News.

fire line tape

Stock image of fire line tape.Getty

The Red Cross assisted more than 40 people after the fire. In total, nine people have been injured, including one firefighter. Six were transported to the hospital, one of whom was in critical condition.

Two of the injured victims were 10 and 13-year-old children, per the outlet. They are in stable condition, NBC New York reported.

The fire caused the building’s second floor to collapse and its roof was destroyed, the Department of Buildings (DOB) said, per CBS News. A total of three properties were affected after the fire spread to two neighboring properties. Full vacate orders have been issued for all three buildings, per the DOB.

An investigation into the fire remains ongoing.

Several neighbors shared their experiences, including Caitlin Clarke, who told the New York Post that she initially smelled smoke. “I stand up and run to the door, and then there’s smoke at the end of the block with flames coming out of it,” Clarke said.

“I run to the door, and then there’s smoke at the end of the block with, like, flames coming out of it,” Clarke told CBS news. “My sister is dashing out. My mom is dashing out.”

“I haven’t seen anything like this in a long time,” Clarke told the NYP. “This is like something I would see in my history book.”

Another neighbor, Subash Gurung, said he and his family live next door and now have nowhere to go, because his “apartment is filled with smoke,” per CBS News.

Rachel Ji expressed his sympathies for those affected, saying, “I feel so bad for the [victims], like, because I don’t know where you can go to. They lost their everything.”

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, according to NBC New York.

 

PEOPLE reached out to the New York Police Department and the Department of Buildings for comment.