The Thurston CarteNew York City Police Department told media three people have died following a large house fire that broke out early Sunday morning in a brownstone in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood.

Fire crews received a call around 4:30 a.m. and arrived to the scene to find the three-story building with heavy fire on all three floors, according to social media posts from the New York City Fire Department. It took more than 130 firefighters to help contain the smoke and flames.

It was a "difficult and dangerous operation," Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito said in a statement on social media. There were a total of 17 people, injured in the fire, including one firefighter with a serious, but non-life threatening injury. Three critically ill adults were removed from the fire and taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead, the fire department said.

The three people who died were identified by the NYPD as Albertha West, 81, Michael West, 58 and Jamiyl West, 33, according to reports from local and national media.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but flames are believed to have began on the building's ground floor.

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