Neighbor pulls kids from fire; mom charged
Infant, toddler hospitalized in critical condition as arson team investigates incident
Two young children were hospitalized in critical condition and their mother was jailed on child abuse charges following a late-night fire Tuesday at the family’s home in a public housing complex on Cerro Gordo Road, Santa Fe police said.
A neighbor acted quickly to rescue the children, ages 3 and 13 months. The kids might have been in the home alone while their mother, 22-yearold Maria Salazar, was out on a walk, Santa Fe police Lt. Marvin Paulk said Wednesday.
Leandra Daniels, the neighbor, didn’t stop and think when she heard that the house down the way might be on fire. She just ran.
Daniels, 27, a stay-at-home mom, knew there were kids in the house — a boy and a girl, roughly the same ages as her own children. She found them almost as soon as she pushed open the front door; they were lying on a blanket in the living room.
“They were all black,” Daniels said. “I just saw smoke and I saw babies, and I grabbed them.”
Daniels said she doesn’t remember seeing any flames when she ran through the open front door. She picked up the 3-year-old boy and carried him outside, she said, and then went back for the girl.
Both were limp, she said, and covered in soot.
The fire was reported around 11:20 p.m. at a home in the Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority complex, Paulk said.
After Daniels removed the children, emergency responders took them to a local hospital, she said.
Paulk said the children were taken to a burn center out of state in critical condition.
Daniels held the little girl until the ambulance arrived, she said, and held the little boy’s hand inside the ambulance on the way to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.
Salazar also was inside the ambulance, Daniels said, and accompanied her children to the hospital.
Daniels remembered seeing Salazar outside the house, after she’d gotten the children out.
“She was scared, she was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ ” Daniels said of Salazar. “She looked really worried about her babies.”
According to Paulk, Salazar told officers she’d been outside on a walk and had left the children inside the home.
According to website of the Santa Fe County jail, she is being held there without bond on suspicion of child abuse.
“It was negligence,” Paulk said. “The children were under her care and custody and supervision.”
Police also planned to charge the children’s father, Paulk said, but he would not release the man’s name because charges had not yet been filed.
Paulk said a local arson team was investigating the cause Wednesday. It could be a case of negligent arson, Paulk said, which would include something unintentional, like the mother smoking inside the home and lighting the carpet on fire by accident.
Carl Crook, a battalion chief at the Santa Fe Fire Department, said the fire was mostly contained to one room and was quickly extinguished when firefighters responded.
On Wednesday, the exterior of the stuccoed building didn’t appear to show signs of fire. Yellow caution tape with the words “fire line, do not cross,” surrounded the residence. On the front door, just under the peep hole, was a decal of a little red heart.
Daniels didn’t really know the family, she said Wednesday afternoon outside her home in the complex, but she knew the young mother had small children, like she does.
“I think they really do love their babies,” said Daniels, who had walked home, barefoot, from the hospital early Wednesday morning. “I really think it was [an accident]. I don’t think they would have intentionally done that.”
As she spoke, she routinely peeked through her door, keeping an eye at her own 1- and 2-year-old kids, asleep inside.
“I barely got any sleep,” Daniels said. “I’ve just been looking at my babies, appreciating them.”
While her kids slept, safe and healthy, she couldn’t stop thinking about the two who weren’t.
“I can’t get it off of my mind at all,” Daniels said of the children burned in the fire. “I just keep constantly thinking about them and if they’re OK.”