Two girls died and a boy and girl were injured in a fire in a second-story apartment in Tokyo's Minato Ward late Wednesday, police and fire officials said.</PARAGRAPH> <PHOTO> <TABLE WIDTH='250' ALIGN='RIGHT' BORDER='0'> <TR> <TD><IMG ALT='News photo' BORDER='0' SRC='../images/photos2007/nn20070511a5a.jpg' WIDTH='250' HEIGHT='185'/></TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><FONT SIZE='1'><B>Firefighters try to put out a fire early Thursday that killed two small children at an apartment in Tokyo's Minato Ward. </B> KYODO PHOTO</FONT></TD> </TR> <TABLE> </PHOTO> <PARAGRAPH>The victims' mother, Kumiko Yamamoto, 32, was out when the fire broke out at around 11:25 p.m. and the children were rescued from the apartment by firefighters.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>However, two of the girls, Kaho, 7, and Moyu, 5, died later of burns to their entire bodies, while Yamamoto's oldest daughter, 12, and son, 10, are being treated in a hospital for smoke inhalation, the officials said, without naming the two survivors.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The fire appears to have started in the apartment and there were no signs of arson, police said. The fire destroyed about 60 sq. meters of the apartment.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>According to neighbors, the surviving daughter and son told them the fire broke out while they were asleep, and they couldn't open the door.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Neighbors said the two older children took good care of their younger sisters until their mother came home from work, usually around 9 p.m.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Two other residents on the same floor of the building complained of sore throats, the firefighters said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The reinforced-concrete building has nine floors and one basement level. It is located across the street from the residence of Prince Takamatsu, an uncle of Emperor Akihito.</PARAGRAPH> <SUBHEAD> Fukushima fire</SUBHEAD> <PARAGRAPH>FUKUSHIMA –

A fire broke out early Thursday morning at a home in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and the bodies of two men and a woman were found in the rubble, police and firefighters said.

The fire, which started around 5 a.m., gutted the living room on the first floor of the two-story house. Homeowner, 63-year-old Mikio Suzuki, his wife and a son are unaccounted for.