Two young sisters were burned after two vans parked side by side caught fire outside a Fridley Walmart on Tuesday morning in a suspected case of negligence, authorities said.
A 6-year-old girl suffered critical burns that Fridley Police Lt. Jim Mork described as life-threatening. Her 9-year-old sister was less seriously burned, Mork said. Both were taken by ambulance from the store in the 8400 block of NE. University Avenue to HCMC.
The younger girl was burned over most of her body and was "not very alert," an emergency responder was heard saying over dispatch audio. The other girl had burns to her hands, arms and face, and was described as alert, the audio disclosed.
The girls were alone in the van for 45 minutes to an hour as their mother shopped in the store, Mork said.
Later Tuesday, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of a 70-year-old man on suspicion that his extreme negligence was behind the fire that engulfed the van next to the one occupied by the children. Inside the torched van was the man's wife, who escaped unharmed, said Sheriff's Lt. Daniel Douglas.
"I can't provide many details," Douglas said, "but we are not calling it arson; simply negligent fires."
The man remains jailed without bail and has yet to be charged. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.
Mork said the girls might have been sleeping at the time and added that leaving children that young alone in a vehicle is not against the law.
