A five-month-old infant has died following a car fire in Thurston County, Washington. According to the sheriff's office, the blaze broke out this afternoon while a father was preparing to leave with his three young children, turning an ordinary departure from the family home into a fatal emergency in a matter of moments.
The fire sparked in Tumwater, outside a home located off 93rd Avenue Southeast. The sheriff's office said the flames erupted during the afternoon, at the family's residence, and it was there that the situation escalated before anyone was able to bring the fire under control or reach everyone inside the vehicle.
Sheriff Sanders told Fox 13 that a father and his three children, aged twelve, two and five months, were getting ready to leave at the time. The family had been preparing to head out together, with the children in the car as the father moved between the home and the vehicle in the moments before the fire began.
The sheriff's account indicates that the father went inside the home with the car turned on and the children still inside it. It was during that interval, with the engine running and the young children in the vehicle, that the fire is said to have sparked, catching the family off guard as it took hold.
When the fire broke out, the two older children, aged twelve and two, were able to get out of the car. They then alerted their father to what was happening, raising the alarm about the flames that had already taken hold of the vehicle as the seconds became critical for the youngest child left inside.
Several neighbors, along with the father, tried to put out the flames as the fire spread. Despite their efforts to control the blaze and reach the car, they were unable to rescue the five-month-old infant, who died in the fire, according to the account provided to Fox 13 by the Thurston County sheriff's office.
The father, the children and those who tried to help were all taken to the hospital for injuries following the fire, the sheriff's office said. Authorities added that the sheriff's office is now investigating the circumstances of the blaze that broke out outside the Tumwater home and claimed the life of the youngest child.