Two sisters were killed in a Thanksgiving house fire in Orange, New Jersey, while helping their disabled father escape, the Essex County prosecutor's office said. 

The victims were identified as 49-year-old Frantzia Fleury and 42-year-old Pojanee "PJ" Fleury.

2 dead, 7 safely escape house fire

The fire broke out at around 5 p.m. Thursday at a home on Mosswood Avenue between Heywood and Tremont avenues.

Prosecutors said the sisters died trying to help their father, who was disabled and diagnosed with dementia, out of the house. They were pronounced dead shortly after 6:45 p.m. 

Their father and six other people managed to escape to safety and were not injured, prosecutors said.

The home has been declared uninhabitable.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor's Office tip line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432.

Sisters had "big hearts," were "deeply devoted" to family, relative says

Sidney, a cousin of the victims who did not want to share his last name, said the sisters had one child each.

"Understand these two women had big hearts, they were deeply devoted to their families, and it's just a tragedy," he said.

Neighbor Justin McDaniel said he's close to the family, who he says has been living in the Mosswood Avenue home for his entire life.

"Hearing that both of [the victims] were trying to do something like that, that's not too surprising for me to hear," he said. "You wish they were still here."

Neighbors who witnessed the fire said the flames appeared to spread quickly.

"We were just afraid that our neighbors may be in there and not able to get out," neighbor Claire Stevens said Thursday night. "We were able to come out and try to comfort some of the neighbors that were also very concerned."

Relatives say PJ Fleury was an inventor and author, and Frantzia Fleury worked in medicine.