Chattanooga police investigators say an 8-month-old girl and 3-year-old boy were asleep upstairs when the fire that killed them broke out in their Bonny Oaks Drive apartment.
The children’s mother, Alfredda Bennett, told police she’d stepped away from the 6215 Bonny Oaks Drive home for just minutes to speak with a neighbor and when she came back she saw the smoke and flames, according to a police release.
Emergency services were called to the scene but the apartment was filled with smoke and fire. Firefighters attempted to rescue the two children, the girl was pronounced dead at the scene the boy died at T.C. Thompson’s Hospital after his arrival.
The children’s 9-year-old brother, reportedly autistic, alerted a bystander of the fire and that he couldn’t get his siblings out of the home.