WHITBY, Ont. – Fire officials say the Whitby home where three teens were killed in a fire this weekend met all building and fire code requirements

However it is still unclear if the home on Dundas Street West near Cochrane Street had working smoke alarms.

A 19-year-old man and two young women, ages 17 and 18, died in the blaze. Their names haven’t been released.

It took fire fighters three hours to put out the fire, which broke out shortly after midnight, Sunday.

At one point flames could be seen shooting out from the house.

“Three individuals removed and transported to hospital, and unfortunately succumbed to their injuries as a result of the fire,” said Durham Regional Police Service Sgt. Dave Brown.

The three victims were trapped in the home — they made frantic calls to 911 but couldn’t escape because the stairway down was full of smoke and flames.

Police officers were the first to arrive on the scene. They kicked in the front door, but couldn’t go further. They had to wait for fire crews to arrive.

“We were panicked, we have actually a fire drill that we do twice a year, and it kicked in, I called 911, the fire fighters,” a next door neighbour told 680News.

There has been no word on what might have sparked the fire, but the Office of the Fire Marshal, as well as Durham police and fire are investigating.

“We’re still conducting our preliminary stages of our investigation, as I understand it the post-mortem examinations are scheduled for tomorrow,” said an investigator with the Fire Marshal’s office.

A pet dog was rescued from the home and is expected to be okay.