Firefighters were called to the fire at Pinecrest Apartments at 512 Hardee St. shortly after 11 p.m. Two adults and three other children were able to escape.
"When we arrived, a lady grabbed me by the arm and said, 'My baby's in the living room,'" said Durham firefighter James Cole, one of several fire fighters who went inside the blazing building to search for Zacheria Singletary.
Singletary was found face down in the second-floor living room, not breathing. Firefighters pulled her to safety and revived her.
She was taken to Duke Medical Center where she was being treated in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Sunday afternoon.
Only one apartment was burned in the eight-unit building, but a second apartment sustained extensive water damage. No other units were damaged.
The fire is still under investigation, but friends of the family told WRAL that they believe the apartment's electricity had been cut off and that candles started the fire. It wsas not immediately clear if smoke detectors were in the apartment.
Durham fire investigators were still working Monday to isolate the cause of the weekend blaze, which left the youngest of the four children fighting for her life.
Amid increasingly dense clouds of smoke, the oldest child -- an 8-year-old boy, according to Durham fire investigator Harold Boyd -- tried to awaken the three children in his care.
He saved himself and two of the children, Boyd said, before firefighters arrived at the scene and pulled the toddler from the blazing apartment.
At least one candle had been left burning when the children in the home had gone to bed Saturday night, Boyd said. Power to the residence had been cut off, he added, although he said he didn't know why.
Boyd, who handles only the investigation into the fire's cause, not criminal charges, said he did not know if police investigators would be charging the children's parents with child endangerment.
The rescued toddler suffered severe smoke inhalation, Boyd said, but was removed from Duke University Medical Center's critical condition roster by Monday afternoon.
Boyd said the toddler's mother told him she was much improved.
Smoke from the fire damaged a neighboring apartment as well, Boyd said. An apartment below the burning apartment suffered major water damage, he added.
Boyd said investigators from the Durham Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division would be reviewing his findings today.
Click for video of story on WRAL
Click here for Firehouse.com story
Kids left alone in apartment before fire
By BriAnne Dopart : The Herald-Sun
bdopart@heraldsun.com
Aug 28, 2006 : 10:25 pm ET
DURHAM -- It was after 11 p.m. Saturday when the piercing scream of a smoke alarm jolted awake the oldest of four children who had been left to sleep alone in an apartment at 512 Hardee St.
