Father, daughter identified as 2 killed in south Sacramento apartment fire
SOUTH SACRAMENTO — A father and his daughter were identified as the two killed in a south Sacramento apartment fire.
The Sacramento County Coroner's Office identified them as Nilesh Jeet, 43, and Naavya Jeet, 9.
It happened at the Stonegate Apartments on Mack Road on Monday afternoon.
"My heart, my soul is shivering," said Indravijay Narayan Maharaj, who is a leader at the victims' Hindu temple.
Maharaj and his family went to the apartment complex to see the damage for themselves on Tuesday. They have known the family for years and were in disbelief this happened.
They uncovered burned religious books in the rubble.
"This was given by me to the little child," Maharaj said. "She was a beautiful, beautiful girl and she used to come to the temple all the time."
Maharaj wants answers to how they got trapped inside the unit when the fire broke out.
In a video a neighbor in the complex shared with CBS13, you can hear the fire alarm blaring as smoke filled the air well before you could see flames on the outside.
"I just started to see the smoke," said Andres Flores, who captured the video. "I didn't know if it was something big at the time."
CBS13 also spoke with a mother and her little boy who live in the building across from the victims. He and his brother saw the building go up in flames.
"When he opened the window, he saw the flames and he felt the intense heat," Cesar Guzman said of his brother.
The Sacramento Fire Department said the fire appeared to have started in the living room where the front door is. The man and girl were in a different room together.
"They were trying to get out but there was no escape," Guzman said.
The cause of what sparked the flames that moved too fast for two people to get out is still unknown, but Sac Fire said it is investigating it as an accidental fire, not suspecting foul play.
"In our culture, we even pray to babies like that. Little girls are like goddesses, and that one goddess is gone," Maharaj said. "We're very, very disturbed."
Sacramento Fire said that by the time they arrived, the ceiling had already collapsed so they did not see a smoke detector, but they did see one in the unit across.
That unit also had some fire damage and the two below had some water damage. The people living in the upstairs unit directly across had to move out because of how much damage was done to their living room.
The nearby Hindu temple where the father and daughter attended will be holding a service for the family in the coming weeks.