BELLEVUE, Neb.—Authorities said a 7-year-old boy playing with a lighter started an apartment blaze Wednesday that killed three people, including a girl and an infant.
Authorities said six children were in the apartment with a 16-year-old baby sitter when the fire broke out around 10 a.m.
The baby sitter was declared dead at the scene, and a 2-year-old girl and 11-month-old girl died at hospitals, authorities said. Four children, ranging in age from 4 months old to 7 years old, escaped the blaze.
Officials did not release the names of any of the people in the Southgate Townhomes apartment during the fire.
“We are very confident that the fire was staring by a child playing with a lighter inside of the home,” said Lt. David Stukenholtz of the Bellevue Fire Department.
The 7-year-old boy and two of the girls who escaped, ages 4 and 3, were in custody of Health and Human Services after they were questioned by police, Bellevue Police Capt. Herb Evers said.
Neighbor Cecilia Carmona, 23, said the three questioned by police were the children of the woman who rented the apartment. She said the children who died were the baby sitter’s nieces.
Carmona said her own 4-month-old daughter, Gabriella, also was in the apartment but was brought out unharmed. Gabriella slept in the arms of relatives while authorities and residents tried to sort out what happened.
Evers said the apartment was leased to a woman with three children, but the ages of the children who died did not match those on the lease. He also said that the woman on the lease was in jail on an unrelated matter before the fire.
Public records showed Cecilia M. Guevara as the most recent resident at the address. Guevara, 39, was released from Sarpy County Jail on bond after 2 p.m. Wednesday. She is charged with felony theft for shoplifting between $201 and $499, a Sarpy County Court official said. A preliminary trial was scheduled for Aug. 6.
Authorities said all the residents in the house except for Carmona’s daughter were related to the woman on the lease.
The fire was under control about an hour after it broke out, but firefighters were still at the scene. The building was evacuated.
“I don’t know that we’ve had any worse than this,” said Evers, who’s been with the department for 34 years.
The apartment has been declared a total loss.
The apartment manager said she had no comment and referred questions to the Southgate’s owner, Omaha-based Seldin Co.
Evers said there was another, unrelated fire at the apartment complex about three weeks ago. That one was caused by a gas leak.
Bellevue is a suburb of about 48,000 people on the south side of Omaha.
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Associated Press Writer Timberly Ross in Omaha contributed to this report.
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