Wednesday, September 4, 2002 12:45AM EDT
newobserver.com
CONOVER, N.C.(AP) - A 10-week-old baby died in car fire Tuesday afternoon while left unattended in an elementary school parking lot, police said.
The infant's mother had come to the school to pick up her kindergartner and left her baby and her 3-year-old child inside the vehicle, said Capt. Steve Brewer of the Conover Police Department. The older child escaped the burning car and ran into the school. Four state Department of Transportation workers - three of whom are volunteer firefighters - working across the street from the school extinguished the fire. The mother was taken to Catawba Valley Medical Center and treated for burns on her hands she received while trying to save her child, Brewer said. Authorities declined to release the names of the mother and her children because family members had not been notified. Leslie Barnette, principal of Lyle Creek Elementary School, said no students witnessed the accident. Conover police, the State Bureau of Investigation, the North Carolina State Medical Office and the Catawba County Fire Marshal's Office are investigating the cause of the fire, Brewer said. "You see a whole lot of things in this profession and you never get used to seeing things like this," Brewer said. "This could be a tragic lesson for all of us - don't leave your child unattended." Information from: The Hickory Daily Record