FDNY probes 2nd fire in 2 days set by children - Newsday.com
NEW YORK -- Investigators are probing the second tragic blaze in two days that appears to have been set by children playing with fire.
One of the Brooklyn blazes was started by children playing with matches. Another appeared to have been sparked by a child with a cigarette lighter. The result, in both cases, was horror.
The first fire, on Thursday, killed 10-month-old Melanie Webb as she lay in her stroller in the borough's Brownsville section.
The second, on Friday in Bedford-Stuyvesant, injured eight people, including 2-year-old Tavonne Green.
"They say Tavonne is burned from head to toe," a relative, Joseph Story, told the New York Post. The boy's mother, India Green, was also badly burned in the fire. His 7-year-old brother and 8-year-old sister suffered less severe injuries, but were also hospitalized.
Firefighters said the children appeared to have been playing with matches when the fire broke out shortly before 6 a.m.
India Green and a 14-year-old neighbor rushed into the burning brownstone after hearing the children's cries. The teen was beaten back by smoke. Green kept trying, even after the flames set fire to her clothing.
Firefighters pulled the entire family to safety.
That blaze had a happier ending than the fire a day before that killed Melanie Webb.
Relatives said investigators believe the infant's stroller was accidentally ignited by a sibling playing with a cigarette lighter. Two other children in the home suffered smoke inhalation.
Police on Saturday said they had charged the baby's mother, Althea Stuger-Webb, 24, with endangering the welfare of a child. Investigators said she was running an errand when the fire broke out. The children were home alone.
