Days after five children under the age of 8 were rushed to hospital after they were exposed to a deadly chemical in their Fort McMurray apartment, and an 8-month-old girl died, the four remaining children were still in hospital.

Two of the surviving children, 6 and 2-year-old boys, are being treated at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, CTV News learned Tuesday that their conditions had not improved – they had been put on ventilators.

Meanwhile, the other two, 7-year-old Zainab and 4-year-old Zohaib were recovering in a Fort McMurray Hospital. It wasn’t clear when they would be released.

Their 35-year-old mother Nida Habeeb is spending time with her children in northern Alberta while their father, her husband, is in Edmonton.

Habeeb told CTV News she wants the three of them to be reunited with the rest of their family in Edmonton.

“I want to go to Edmonton with my kids and my husband, and join my family,” Habeeb said.

On Sunday, the children were rushed to hospital after a reported chemical spill in the ground-floor apartment located at 81 Fraser Avenue in Fort McMurray.

RCMP told CTV News Monday that the substance the family was exposed to was a chemical used in pest control.

A relative said the mother had scattered pellets of a chemical she brought back from Pakistan to try and kill bed bugs last Tuesday, but all five children started to show symptoms of poisoning Saturday.

Investigators confirmed the poison was released when the mother started to vacuum the apartment.

Crowdfunding campaign launched

On Tuesday, a Fort McMurray woman launched an online GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $15,000 for the family.

“This story just broke my heart, I have four children of my own and I couldn’t imagine one of my children dying, all four being ill,” Niola McLean, the woman who launched the funding campaign, told CTV News.

McLean said the money could go to cover a number of costs the family could be facing.

“I figured they need a funeral, they also need to get out of that apartment and find something safe, so if they had a few months of money towards a new clean place to live,” McLean said. “I was thinking I should have added a few extra for furniture because you certainly don’t want to spread the bed bugs to somewhere else as well.”

Six hours after the campaign launched, nearly $4,000 had been raised.

With files from Dan Grummett