Bryan County house fire kills toddler

CALERA, Okla. (AP) -- Authorities say a fire that killed a 23-month-old girl was the result of her older brother playing with matches or a lighter.<br/><br/>Virginia Privitt died in the fire, which started

Thursday, April 14th 2005, 6:16 am

By: News On 6

CALERA, Okla. (AP) -- Authorities say a fire that killed a 23-month-old girl was the result of her older brother playing with matches or a lighter.

Virginia Privitt died in the fire, which started about 8 AM. Bryan County Sheriff's Sergeant Charles Boucher says the blaze was declared accidental and no one else was hurt.

Boucher says the child's 4r-year-old brother was upstairs playing with matches or a lighter before he went downstairs to his parents and told them his sister's bed was on fire.

Boucher says the father tried to go upstairs but couldn't because of the heat.

He says her mother called 911.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, and a Calera police officer and Boucher also tried to enter the girl's room inside the house and through a window, but the intense heat kept them away.

Undersheriff Ken Golden says the boy told investigators he set two beds upstairs on fire and started another fire in a closet downstairs.