Three young girls die in Silver Spring apartment blaze

Three young girls are dead and their mother is in critical condition after a fire broke out in their Silver Spring apartment early Thursday morning.

Thirty-year-old Elsie Nuka, 4-month-old Makenzie Foncham and her sisters, 2-year-old Megan and 4-year-old Chanelle, were found unconscious and not breathing when firefighters arrived at their ground-floor apartment at about 5 a.m. Thursday, Montgomery County fire spokesman Pete Piringer said.