Greetings! Please Share & Subcribe.
A fourth child died today as a result of a fire in a Houston home day care center, a local television station reported, and investigators are trying to determine whether the center's owner was out shopping when the deadly blaze ignited.
Eighteen-month-old Elias Castillo died this morning, Houston television station KTRK reported. Two other children who had been transferred to Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston -- which specializes in burn care -- remain in critical but stable condition. A third child was released from Houston's Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital on Friday.
The operator of Jackie's Child Care -- Jessica Rene Tata, 22 -- has not been charged with any crime. But a law enforcement source told the Houston Chronicle that Tata went shopping at a nearby store and returned either just before or just as the blaze broke out Thursday afternoon.
"There's no question she went shopping," the source, who asked not to be identified, told the newspaper Friday. "They're trying to determine exactly when she returned, although it was a very close proximity (in time) to the fire."
Investigators also are trying to determine whether she left another adult in charge of the seven toddlers inside the day care facility, the newspaper reported.
The scene outside the home Thursday was heartbreaking; the one-story home engulfed in flames as firefighters ran down the crowded street carrying small children to ambulances.
That morning Betty Ukera, a third-grade teacher, dropped off her 19-month-old daughter, Elizabeth, after giving her a quick kiss. At 1:40 p.m., she told reporters she answered her cell phone after seeing the day care's phone number on her caller ID. It was Tata.
"She was screaming 'You've got to get here quickly! All the babies are dying!'" Ukera told the Houston Chronicle.
Ukera told her students to keep working and ran down the hall to the school principal, where she told him, "My baby! My baby! My babysitter called and said the children are dying at the day care."
The principal quickly drove her to the house; as they approached, she could hear the wailing of ambulances. Emergency workers wouldn't let anyone pass; she got out of the car and ran toward the house, where she found Tata outside, screaming and crying. "Where's my baby? Where's my baby?" Ukera asked her.
A police officer gave the principal a list of hospitals where the children were taken and the two set off -- first to the closest, where another child was being treated in the ER, then to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, where Ukera was told no information would be given until the children were identified.
"And I said, 'Bring out the clothes,'" Ukera said. The nurse brought out a pair of pink leggings and a blouse -- both belonging to Elizabeth. "Is she alive?" Ukera asked. She remembers someone saying, "I'm sorry, ma'am. We did everything we could."
All seven children in the home were between the ages of 18 months and 3 years, investigators said. State child care rules say home day care operators should not care for more than six children of preschool age -- generally defined as older than 18 months but younger than 5 years.
The mother of another girl who died in the fire, 20-month-old Kendyll Stradford, went to the house on Friday, sobbing as she stood at the front door, the Associated Press reported. "I just wanted to see how bad it was," Kenya Stradford said.
Stradford said that Thursday was her "sweet, laughing" toddler's second day at the center. If she could talk to Tata, Stradford would ask her about the tragedy.
"I just need to know what happened," Stradford said.
AOL
0 Comments