UPDATED at 5 p.m. with the names of the students.

EDWARDSVILLE • Two Southern Illinois University Edwardsville co-eds remain in critical condition after an early morning off-campus apartment fire.

Edwardsville Fire Chief Rick Welle said a neighbor in the 600 block of Hillsboro Avenue noticed smoke coming from the second floor apartment sometime around 3:45 a.m. Firefighters arriving on the scene of the one-alarm fire found the two female victims in a room adjacent to an active fire in a bedroom.

Lauren D. Petersen, 19, and Lacy V. Siddall, 21, were carried out by rescue personnel and transported to Anderson Hospital in Maryville. They were later airlifted to St. Lukes Hospital in Chesterfield, Welle said. The students were childhood friends who grew up in Bethalto, he said.

The blaze is under investigation but not considered suspicious. Welle said a laptop computer on a bed and an electrical power strip were in the vicinity of where the fire started.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story contained an incorrect spelling of a fire victim's name. This version has been corrected.

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