A New Jersey woman and her one-year-old son died from carbon monoxide poisoning as they sat in an idling car during Saturday night's blizzard. Her husband and father of their children was shoveling snow just outside the car when they died. It appears that the snow had blocked the vehicle's exhaust pipe, sending the carbon monoxide into the interior of the car, which was parked near the family's home in Passaic.

After approximately 20 minutes, the woman's husband noticed that they were unconscious inside the car and called 911 shortly after 8 p.m. Neighbors say first responders arrived quickly, but were unable to save Sashalynn Rosa, 23, and her son Messiah, 1. Their 3-year-old daughter, also in the car, was listed in “very critical condition” last night.

Mom, 1-year-old child die of carbon monoxide poisoning while sitting in car in #Passaic - https://t.co/nYVxL4dYAv pic.twitter.com/cXCRAogNQ0 — Andrew Wyrich (@AndrewWyrich) January 25, 2016

"While outside, the mother and children felt cold so they went inside the car to warm up while the husband continued to clean the car,” mayor Alex Blanco told reporters yesterday. "What they didn’t foresee was the snow covered the exhaust system, so the fumes had nowhere to go but inside the car. With carbon monoxide, you can’t smell it and can’t see it, so they just fell asleep."

Neighbor Wilfredo Ortiz told NJ.com, "It’s hard. They were a good family, you know? Just working hard to get by. A good man has lost his wife and his baby. They never fought, they were a good family, she was a good wife and they were just good people. I couldn’t say a bad thing about them if I tried.”

"It’s heartbreaking, it’s something you can’t foresee,” Blanco added. “It’s something that is not on ‘the list’ of things not to do during a storm. We’ll all have to add that to the list. Something like this, I probably would have made the same mistake.”

The Associated Press reports that there were at least 31 blizzard-related fatalities in parts of the U.S. impacted by the storm. Locally, a 66-year-old man was killed when he was struck by a snow plow clearing his Long Island driveway on Sunday afternoon, and three people across NYC reportedly died from over-exertion while shoveling snow.