Kansas City firefighters rescue alone toddler from blaze

Firefighters in Kansas City, Kansas were called Saturday morning to a fire and made a surprising discovery — a 2-year-old girl was alone in the burning house. Fortunately they were able to rescue her. The toddler suffered from smoke inhalation and is in serious condition, but family members say she is recovering. The twist to this story, though, is that it wasn’t an unfortunate coincident that was the result of poor judgment leaving a child by herself — investigators are saying that the fire was intentionally set:

Neighbors said the child lived at the house with her mother. However, the child’s mother did not show up at the house until firefighters were about to leave the scene about an hour after finding the girl.

Police took the 27-year-old woman into custody for investigation of endangering the welfare of a child, Snapp said, although she had not been charged Saturday.

Police believe the mother left the child unattended for 2 1/2 hours.

Fire investigators ruled that the fire was intentionally set, Vitale said.

He said the fire department had closed its investigation, but details regarding how the blaze was ignited were not released Saturday.

Saturday evening, detectives had not said who they believed was responsible.