Scene of Beer Sheva fire
Scene of Beer Sheva fireMDA

A two-year-old girl killed after a fire broke out in a Beer Sheva apartment Sunday was laid to rest in a predawn funeral on Monday.

On Sunday, a fire broke out in a seventh story apartment in an eight-story building on David Elazar Street in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva.

Firefighters say the blaze appears to have been sparked when one of the children played with matches.

Emergency first responders from MDA were called to the scene, along with fire and rescue teams.

Rescue teams found a two-year-old girl unconscious in the apartment who suffered critical injuries in the fire. The girl was treated at the scene before being evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in critical condition.

After her arrival at Soroka, hospital officials were forced to declare the girl's death.

A four-year-old boy was also pulled from the burning apartment after firefighters found him hiding underneath his bed.

Hundreds gathered in the New Beer Sheva Cemetery at 1:00 a.m. Monday for the funeral of two-year-old Shterna Sarah Shepadov.

The Shepadov family, part of the local Chabad community, requested that the public pray on behalf of their four-year-old son Schneur Zalman ben Zuslin Shulamis, who remains in serious condition at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center.

A girl roughly 10 years of age suffered moderate injuries from smoke inhalation and contusions after she jumped from the apartment’s balcony to escape the fire. A woman in her early 30s also suffered from smoke inhalation and is in moderate and stable condition.

The family’s father was at work when the fire broke out, authorities say, and the mother managed to rescue some of her children from the blaze, but was unable to return to the apartment to save the two children who were later pulled from the home by firefighters.

“The woman was screaming the entire time that her baby was still in the apartment,” said senior MDA paramedic Yaron Barel. “Fire and rescue teams went into the burning apartment brought out an unconscious 3-year-old child who had no pulse and was not breathing. We provided emergency first aid at the scene, and performing resuscitation techniques while she was in critical condition.”