Parents locked kids in bedroom to go to store, CA cops say. Then apartment caught fire
Three children were rescued from a burning apartment after their parents locked them in a bedroom to walk to a convenience store, California authorities said.
Police officers arrived at the Burbank apartment shortly after 2 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2, after “reports of an apartment fire with children trapped inside,” the Burbank Police Department said in a news release.
The officers saw smoke rising from a second-story unit, police said. They “were told by neighbors that young children were trapped inside.”
As officers entered the locked apartment filled with “thick black smoke,” they heard the children, ages 3, 5, and 6, “screaming for help,” Burbank police said.
Officers found the locked bedroom door and forced it open, the release said. They then “picked up the three children, and exited the apartment, rescuing all three.”
The children were taken to a hospital for “non-life threatening injuries,” Burbank police said. Five officers were also taken to a hospital “to be treated for smoke inhalation and non-life-threatening injuries.” The officers have been released.
Police found the parents “a short distance away,” the release said.
“The two said they had locked their children in the bedroom and walked to a local convenience store,” according to police.
The parents were arrested and booked into jail on a child neglect charge, police said. The two are “being held in lieu of a $100,000 bail” and are expected to appear in court on Friday.
Police said the cause of the fire is being determined.
Burbank is about 10 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
This story was originally published November 4, 2022 at 10:56 AM with the headline "Parents locked kids in bedroom to go to store, CA cops say. Then apartment caught fire."
