A three-floor Mount Vernon home went up in flames Wednesday morning with a mother and her two children inside.

The fire, which broke out at about 11:15 a.m. at 67 South St., quickly grew into a two-alarm blaze. Mount Vernon firefighters split into two groups, with some fighting the fire with a tower ladder as others climbed up to battle the blaze from the inside.

Fire officials say they quickly began to scan the building to see if anyone had been trapped by the flames. "We performed a primary search and all the searches were negative," says a fire official.

The mother and her two kids had already escaped the building safely. No one else was in the house at the time.

Officials say firefighters then began to pour massive amounts of water on the house from multiple directions, attempting to bring the stubborn flames under control. It took them an hour to put it out. Investigators are now trying to determine the cause of the blaze.