Mother dies from her injuries a week after fire which 'started from a soda stream' killed her two children, a friend and one other woman at a New Jersey furniture store

A mother who initially survived a fire that tore through a New Jersey furniture store last week killing her two young daughters, their friend, and another woman has died of her injuries. 

Merlyn Vasquez, 36, died on Thursday at a hospital, three days after the fire occurred in Elizabeth. 

Her death was confirmed on Tuesday by a city spokeswoman.

The fire apparently started in a ground-floor business and quickly spread to a second-floor furniture store where the victims were found, authorities have said. 

Merlyn Vasquez, 36, died on Thursday at a hospital in New Jersey, three days after she was injured in a fire that tore through a furniture store in Elizabeth. Her two young daughters - Daniela Marquez , 8, and Paola Marquez , 10 - were killed in the blaze

The girls' friend, Elizabeth Correas, 11, was also killed in the fire. She had joined her friends in shopping for school supplies

Another woman, Candida Martinez-Del Reyes, 41, was also killed, but it's not clear if she was related to any of the other victims. Her body was found in the debris on the morning of October 6

The five-alarm fire quickly tore through the two-story building on Elizabeth Avenue on the evening of October 5

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but officials have said it may have started in a soda machine in a dollar-store on the ground-floor.

Vasquez's daughters - Daniela Marquez, 8, and Paola Marquez, 10 - died in the fire, along with their friend, Elizabeth Correas, 11. 

The Marquez sisters and their mother are survived by their older sibling, 20-year-old Tatiana. 

Correas' mother told WNBC-TV that she brought her daughter to the United States from El Salvador seeking a better life. 

The mother and the three girls were shopping for school supplies when the fire broke out sometime after 6pm on October 5. 

Another woman, Candida Martinez-Del Reyes, 41, was also killed, but it's not clear if she was related to any of the other victims.

Her body was found in the debris on the morning of October 6. 

A GoFundMe account was launched to help raise funds needed to repatriate her body back to her native El Salvador. 

Local residents accused the building's owners of failing to keep the property up to code

It took more than 100 firefighters some three-and-a-half hours to get the fire under control. An aerial view is seen above

Friends have said Marquez's family had immigrated from El Salvador last year and lived in Elizabeth.  

Authorities told WABC-TV that the smoke detectors in the building were working, but the fire spread so quickly that first responders did not have enough time to rescue the trapped victims. 

Local officials have also said that the building, which was old, may not have been up to code.

The building was purchased four years ago by Okay Roger Realty of Brooklyn.

Investigators said that the victims tried to escape but the route was blocked by metal gates. The owners of the property were accused by locals of performing 'illegal conversions.'

Neighbors said the last inspection done on the property was four years ago.

Investigators said that the fire's quick spread was aided by cribs and other furniture items, making the store into a virtual tinder box.

According to witnesses, three police officers were blocks away from the building and desperately tried to reach the victims.

It took more than 100 firefighters some three-and-a-half hours to get the blaze under control.

'It was hard to control from spreading,' Elizabeth Fire Director Pat Byrnes said. 

'We didn't see white smoke until an hour. It was constant black smoke, and we were putting lot of water on it.'