Video: UPDATE : Victim In Columbus Apartment Fire Identified

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – An 11-year-old girl dies Wednesday morning and three others are injured in an early morning fire that ripped through four units of an East Columbus apartment complex.

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant identified the victim as 11-year-old Oronanjula Shanklin. Her mother and siblings escaped the blaze. She is the grand-niece of Columbus Mayor Robert Smith.

According to Merchant, it appeared the fire broke out in the girl’s two-story townhouse and as she and her mother and siblings were fleeing from the second floor to the first floor, they fell and got separated.

Three other people in an adjacent apartment also were injured. One was airlifted to University Medical Center in Jackson and the other to LeBonheur in Memphis. The third was treated at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.

The fire started at about 1:30 a.m. and spread to at least three other units in the building. Firefighters were able to keep the fire out of most of the other four units in the eight-unit building.

When firefighters arrived at the initial call, they were able to get two children and an adult out in the first frantic moments of the fire, according to witnesses. The victims lived in two different units of the building.

Firefighters spent more than 90 minutes trying to control the blaze, which sent flames shooting from the roof of the units.

The Red Cross is responding to assist families who were left homeless by the fire, smoke and water damage to the complex. Several other buildings in the complex weren’t damaged.