Rochester authorities have identified a woman and her 2-year-old daughter who died in an apartment fire Thursday.
Melissa Phiefer, 25, and her daughter, Emily, died in the fire at a fourplex in the 400 block of 27th Avenue NE.
Firefighters arrived about 5:45 p.m. to find the lower apartment in flames and learned two people were still inside. Rescue workers found the mother and daughter and tried to resuscitate them.
Two residents from an upper-level apartment were rescued from the roof of an entryway canopy.
The fire appears to have been caused when discarded smoking materials ignited a futon, according to a preliminary investigation.
Mary Lynn Smith
