Parents arrested after their 2 young boys are injured in fire while home alone
The parents of two young boys were arrested after their kids started a fire while they were alone in their Florida home, according to police.
The boys, 6 and 8, reportedly told police that they were playing with a lighter and lit a cup on fire before putting it in a drawer inside their bedroom.
The fire then spread.
Police said a neighbor was driving past their home around 3 p.m. when she spotted smoke coming from the roof.
The woman pulled over and tried to get the boys out of the house, police said.
"She motioned for the children to come to her, but they went back inside," Osceola County sheriff's spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain said. "She ran into the residence and brought them outside."
Jonathan Lopez-Banos, 30, and Rosmarie Medina-Arroyo, 36, were reportedly at work during the incident and are now facing child-neglect charges.
See more from this story:
The boys said their father was on the way home from his landscaping job when the fire broke out, Lizasuain said.
Lopez-Banos got home at 3:30 p.m. and told police he left the kids with their mother before he went to work, according to reports.
"I think it's easy to feel bad for the parents in a way, but these kids could have died because they neglected to care for them," Lizasuain said.
Read: Mother Whose Four Young Children Perished In A House Fire Sentenced To 7 Years In Prison
The children had minor burns and were treated at the scene, according to reports.
The Florida Department of Children and Families took custody of the boys who told police it wasn't the first time they'd been left alone.
Watch: 16-Year-Old Boy Runs Through Smoke and Flames to Save Sister From House Fire
