ATLANTA --
Firefighters battled a house fire in the 900 block of Estes Drive in South West Atlanta Sunday morning.
Firefighters said an elderly mother and her daughter were killed during the fire.
Neighbors watched from a distance in disbelief, as firefighters combed through the house.
"I said, 'No, not their house, it couldn't have been them.' It's devastating really, because I had just seen them two days ago," said neighbor Stan Gaye.
Gaye's lived in the neighborhood for 18 years.
He was friend's with the daughter and said she was recovering from two broken ankles.
Gaye also said her mother was in her nineties and blind.
"They are going to be missed, everybody on this street knows them," said Gaye.
Firefighters found a space heater inside the home.
They say said it was too close to something in the home and caused the fatal fire.
"The mother was less than 2 feet from the space heater," said Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran.
Firefighters found the women in the living room, near the front door, on the floor.
Chief Cochran said it's very likely the woman died from smoke inhalation.
Crews managed to rescue a dog from the house.
The Atlanta Fire Department encourages people to keep space heaters three feet away from objects and unplug the heater when not using it.
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