A three-year-old boy perished in a house fire yesterday afternoon. It happened at the home of 30-year-old Jaime Rivera Sr. at mile 4 and a half on the Northern Highway. Rivera Sr. told police around 2 on Sunday his 3-year-old son, Jaime Rivera Jr., and a 5-year-old boy were playing with matches and papers on a mattress near the bathroom. The mattress caught fire and while the adults fled, little Jaime Rivera junior couldn’t. He was left on the burning bed and the by the time he was rescued, he had suffered burns to more than 50% of his body. He was rushed to the KHMH but died 24 hours later. Ralston McDonald works across the street and ran to help. He told us what he saw and what he did.
Ralston McDonald, Witness
“The smoke intense and then I told my partner to call the Fire Department because it looked like a fire. So I went across the street because I heard the woman screaming and hollering. But she wasn’t saying that the baby was inside until her friend came out and said the baby is in there. So me and another dude went up in there and searched for the baby. The other guy said he found him but the way the baby looked, you could tell he was badly burnt and it’s terrible. It’s a very sad story because the parents were home at the time too. You know if you smell smoke you should get up right away and it was only a mattress.”
Police Press Officer G. Michael Reid says police won’t charge the parents for child neglect because they were at home at the time. He says it is nothing more than an unfortunate accident.
