A 6-month-old child trapped in a raging dwelling fire in Essex died Friday night, fire officials said.

Fire crews found the child, Sophia Rivera-Cortes, deceased inside the home while attempting to rescue her, according to a press release from the Baltimore County Fire Department. Firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire at the 1000 block of Foxcroft Lane just before 7 p.m. on Friday.

When firefighters arrived, the fire had engulfed the first and second floors and was spreading to an adjoined home. A woman and two children escaped and were taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

This is the third fatal fire in Baltimore County this year, and the fourth in a month. The fire department said it “has seen a rise in deadly residential fires in the past two months.”

Since the start of the year, two other people died in separate dwelling fires in Parkville. A 4-year-old boy died on Jan. 6, and a 76-year-old woman died on Jan. 4.

Lillian Franklin, a neighbor who could see the blaze from her window, said she watched as emergency vehicles drove in and fire crews chain sawed holes in the roof.

“My heart is broken for that mother,” Franklin said in a message, adding that she could have easily been in the same position as a mother of four young children. “It makes me hold my babies a little tighter.”

Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier said in a social media post on Saturday morning that she was “deeply saddened for the family” who lost their child in the fire.

“No parent should ever have to endure such an unimaginable loss, and all of Baltimore County mourns alongside them,” said Klausmeier. “I want to thank the first responders who acted with courage and compassion during this devastating emergency, and we hold this family in our prayers.”

The red brick on the exterior of the house was charred by the fire, and the windows were busted open. Insulation and furniture were torn apart inside the home.

Baltimore county firefighters battled a separate two-alarm fire about five miles away on Friday night at the Center Place Senior Apartment Homes, an affordable housing facility for those over the age of 62. The building is run by Tennessee-based company called Silver Tree Residential, which could not be reached on Saturday morning.

At least 100 residents living at the facility out of 300 were likely displaced, Deputy Fire Chief Rob Kamp said at a news conference on Friday. Baltimore County Office of Emergency Management and the property’s management, along with community partners, were helping with relocation, he said.

The Red Cross of the National Capital & Greater Chesapeake Region helped house about 20 residents displaced from the senior center on Friday evening, according to a press release. The organization is providing meals and shelter for them at the Ateaze Senior Center on Holabird Avenue, as well as financial and emotional support, American Red Cross officials said.

Baltimore County will close the Red Cross shelter at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Bethany Bray Patterson, a spokesman for the organization’s local chapter, said in an email.

“Our team will continue to work with the county to ensure that residents impacted by the fire are connected to recovery resources,” said Patterson.

It was not immediately clear if displaced residents would be returned to the apartments or housed elsewhere.

Kamp said that having two two-alarm fires happening simultaneously is a rarity, and the department relied on help from Anne Arundel and Baltimore City.

Both fires were under control later on Friday night.

This article has been updated.