Juan Moreno, 41, of Southern California, took several family members out of a burning house but died when he returned to save his two daughters.

Moreno's seven-person family was sleeping in a two-storey apartment in an apartment building in Hemet City, Southern California, on Monday morning when the fire started and spread quickly, police spokesman Jeff Davis said in a statement. announcement.

Moreno took his wife, newborn baby and an 11-year-old son out of the house, then returned to save his two daughters Maria, 12 and Janessa, 4, but failed. All three father and son were killed in the fire. Police later discovered the 8-year-old son of the family was seriously injured in the apartment and took him to the hospital.

Another man living in the same apartment both cried and said that he had evacuated his family but could not save the neighbors. "I cannot imagine what they have endured," he said.

"He is really a hero," the girls' teacher said. "He is a father who is willing to declare that he will die for his children and he did so."

People who lived across the street from the road telling them that they were sleeping were startled awake by screams and something seemed to be exploding. Witness Guadalupe Feregrino said that when he ran outside, he saw a crying girl calling for her father but could do nothing but call the police.

Firefighters have trouble keeping the fire from spreading to other apartments because the fire is so fast that it burns everything, Hemet Fire Department director Scott Brown said.

The wife of the dead man declares that flames erupted from their apartment. Police are investigating the cause of the fire and have not found any signs of crime in the incident.