Grandmother, 8-year-old granddaughter killed in Orange, N.J., fire

A grandmother and her granddaughter were killed in a house fire in Orange, New Jersey, on Saturday morning.

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office said Omilia Mereste, 70, and Bianca Mereste, 8, died in the fire that went to five alarms.

Neighbors describe chaotic scene

Neighbors stood in shock, watching flames and smoke destroy the home on Park Place just before 8:30 a.m.

Chaotic is the only way Jamie Wright and his wife, Alycia, could describe the scene outside of the home next door.

"When I opened our windows, I saw that there was smoke billowing from ... what would be their kitchen in the back area of their house," Alycia Wright said.

"A lot of people were saying a lot of things, but they were yelling, 'My daughter's inside,'" Jamie Wright said. "And so that's when they went and tried to bust a window."

The Wrights said the fire spread within minutes and that a family with three children lived in the home, with Omilia Mereste believed to be the matriarch of the family.

"The smoke was coming out. Some of the neighbors had already gotten on the smaller roof with a ladder to try to break a window open to get somebody out, but it was too much smoke," Jamie Wright said.

Omilia and Bianca Mereste were both pronounced dead at the scene.

The Orange Fire Department even had to hoist one of its firefighters down into the home using a crane and ropes to retrieve what they could from the destroyed building.

20 people displaced

Fire departments from several neighboring Essex County towns assisted. First responders on scene endured humid, and at times rainy, conditions. NJ Transit said a cooling bus was on scene for firefighters at the request of the Orange Police Department.

The Red Cross says 20 people across five families, including residents of a neighboring home, were displaced. The fire also damaged a neighboring home's siding.

Officials are investigating what caused the fire.

The block where the fire happened is full of multi-family homes housing multi-generational families that have owned their properties for decades. Alycia Wright said she and her husband live with her mother, who has owned the home since the '60s.

According to the prosecutor's office, Omilia Mereste was the homeowner of the house that was destroyed.