Fire Kills 3; Police Investigating Whether Child Playing With Fire Started It

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) _ Authorities were investigating whether children started an apartment fire Wednesday that killed three people, including a girl and an infant. <br/><br/>Fire Capt. Herb Evers said

Wednesday, July 25th 2007, 2:32 pm

By: News On 6

BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) _ Authorities were investigating whether children started an apartment fire Wednesday that killed three people, including a girl and an infant.

Fire Capt. Herb Evers said at least five children were in the apartment with a teenage baby sitter when the fire broke out around 10 a.m. The three being questions, believed to be ages 7 to 10, all escaped the blaze.

Officials were trying to determine the identities of the victims Wednesday afternoon.

Evers said the apartment was leased to a woman with three children, but the ages of the children who died did not match those on the lease. He also said that the woman on the lease, whose name he would not release, was in jail on an unrelated matter before the fire began.

Neighbor Cecilia Carmona, 23, said the victims were the baby sitter and her nieces. Carmona said her own 4-month-old daughter, Gabriela, was brought out unharmed.

The manager of the Southgate Townhomes apartments said she had no comment and referred questions to the Southgate's owner, Seldin Co.

Evers said there was another, unrelated fire at the apartment complex about three weeks ago that had been caused by a gas leak.

Bellevue is a suburb of about 48,000 people on the south side of Omaha.