A 2-year-old girl was killed when her mother was unable rescue her from a blaze that swept through an apartment complex Wednesday afternoon in Salt Lake City.
The mother, Hilda Goodluck, was also seriously burned in the fire, which officials suspect may have been caused by a 3-year-old playing with a cigarette lighter, making it the fourth fire in the past month that started from children playing with fire.Sheila Dewey was driving by the four-apartment complex at 970 S. 500 East when she noticed smoke just after 4 p.m. and stopped to help. Goodluck, 37, came out of the blazing building with burned hands, hair, face and feet, she said.
"I saw her (Goodluck) out here crying. She had her little 3-year-old boy with her and said she couldn't get in to where her little girl was," said Dewey. "She said she was sleeping and when she woke up, her apartment was in flames."
"She tried to get her child out the very best way she could," but the flames and smoke prevented her, said Salt Lake Fire Battalion Chief Gordon Nicholl.
"I tried to go in the bedroom window, too, and I couldn't. It was so filled with smoke," Dewey said, fighting back tears. "I just feel so bad I couldn't get in."
As firefighters arrived, they were met with "smoke and flames billowing from the lower apartment and the apartment above," Nicholl said. Two other tenants were assisted out of the building unharmed. Firefighters battled the fire for about 15 minutes before extinguishing it.
The body of Scarlet Yellow, 2, was later found on the remains of a couch in her apartment's living room, where the fire appeared to have started, said Battallion Chief Don Hill.
"This tears every firefighter's heart up. It's a terrible waste," Nicholl said.
Three-year-old Aaron Yellow escaped the blaze uninjured. His mother was in serious but stable condition at the University of Utah Medical Center with burns over 7 1/2 percent of her body. She also suffered third-degree burns on her hands and arms, a nursing supervisor said.
The two lower apartments in the complex were gutted and an upper hallway and apartment were also partially burned, Nicholl said. Damage was estimated at $50,000. Firefighter Tom Roberson was also injured while fighting the blaze. He was treated at Holy Cross for a hand laceration and later released.
Although the official cause of the fire is still under investigation, fire officials said the 3-year-old boy had a cigarette lighter in his possession when he came out of the apartment and they suspect that's how it started.
"It comes down to the same old story. Keep the lighters and the matches where the kids can't get to them," warned Hill.
Last week, firefighters battled another fire started by kids with matches at a house only a block away from Wednesday's blaze. A 7-year-old was striking matches and throwing them into a garbage can.
A month ago, another Salt Lake house fire began when two children, 2 and 3 years old, took a cigarette lighter upstairs in a closet and were playing with it. A Kearns house fire three weeks ago was started by a 4-year-old who found some matches in a barbecue in the garage, went back into the house and tried to roast marshmallows.
The four homes suffered more than $120,000 in damages from the fires and Nicholl said other deaths could have easily occurred. "Children playing with matches are lethal. That's all there is to it."
Parents who have children that seem to be fascinated with fire should contact their local fire department, Nicholl said. Juvenile fire programs are offered to help children understand fire and how dangerous it can be.
"Maybe we can avert another one of these tragedies," he said.