A house where a 2-month-old baby girl died in a fire early this morning had no working smoke detectors, fire officials say.
Firefighters found Tiniya Coleman in a first-floor bedroom of the 1½-story home in the 800 block of North Laramie Avenue in the Austin neighborhood at about 2 a.m., officials said. The child died at the scene.
The child was on a smoldering bed and the bedroom's door was closed, according to Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. The fire appears to have started on the bed, but the cause remained unclear, Langford said.
The home's only smoke detector didn't have working batteries, he said.
The child's mother, Ashley Coleman, told CBS Channel 2 that she went to the baby’s room but it was too smoky and she couldn’t find Tiniya.
“She was just with me and then that happened,” Coleman said. “She was always smiling, laughing, trying to sit up and look at everybody. She was a happy baby.”
Flames spread to a neighboring home but no other injuries were reported.
Neighbor Carrie Ivay is now displaced along with husband and three grandchildren visiting from Alabama.
"I just seen flames, so I woke my husband up and I came downstairs, then I got my grandkids up and then I got them out," she said. "Before we got out of the house, our house was not in flames. And we got out the gate, our house went up into flames.
"I'm grateful, I'm grateful because everything can be replaced. Life cannot so I'm very grateful for that."
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