UPDATE: Rescued Baby Dies at Hospital

Update, December 24th, 10:10 am: Four-month-old Aniyah Vaughn died from facial burns and severe smoke inhalation. She was sleeping when the fire erupted. The fire appears to have started in a vacant apartment on the ground floor. According to the New York Post, the mother says she ran outside in the middle of the confusion when the fire first errupted, thinking someone else had grabbed her baby. When she discovered the infant was still inside, the woman and her male companion tried to rush back in, but were forced back by the firestorm.

Update from the 79th Precinct, December 23, 10:33 pm: We are sad to report that the baby rescued in the fire, Aniyah Vaughn, four months old, was taken to Cornell Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. There is no criminality suspected at this time and the investigation is ongoing.

A baby was rescued from a building where a fire broke out this afternoon, at 521 Greene Avenue between Nostrand and Marcy Avenues.

The fire started on the first floor of a four-story dwelling at around 1:20 pm. The child's mother called the fire department in a panic from outside of the building, where her baby was inside. The Fire Department broke in to save the trapped infant, who is in critical condition and was taken to Woodhull Hospital.

All other tenants self-evacuated with no injuries, and one firefighter had minor injuries.

The fire – which required 12 units and 60 firefighters – was put down within 50 minutes. The Fire Department said the cause of the fire is unknown and still under investigation.

A group of neighbors gathered across the street to watch the scene, as firefighters sprayed the building, carried out the young child and searched for any remaining people inside. No one in the group of neighbors knew the woman of the young child, and they could provide no detail about how the fire started.

Another neighbor, who would not provide his name, was outside at the time the fire first started. He said that he saw the mother of the young child talking with someone up the block when they all first noticed the smoke coming from her building. He said the mother was able to call the fire department because she had her cell phone on her.

"The baby looked like she got it bad. But everybody was fine, they just seemed a little burned," said Dave Jackson, 41. Jackson said he has lived in the neighborhood his entire life and that it has always been a safe and quiet block. "Nothing like this really happens here. These two blocks here are the quietest blocks in the neighborhood."