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Two brothers, aged 2 and 1, die in Kumamoto fire

10 Comments

Two brothers aged 2 and 1 died in a house fire in Arao, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Friday night, police said Saturday.

According to police, the two children were staying at the house of their grandmother, Tomoko Hayashi, 52. Her 24-year-old son and his 23-year-old wife and left the children in her care for the night, TV Asahi reported.

Neighbors reported flames coming from the wooden house at around 8:45 p.m., police said. It took firefighters about one hour to extinguish the blaze, The remains of the two boys were found inside, having most likely died of smoke asphyxiation, police said.

Hayashi suffered burns to her body and is in a stable condition in hospital, police said.

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10 Comments
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Just horrible.

RIP to the kids.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Sad for the kids. The parents will be so traumatized by this tragedy. My condolences.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Was was this allowed to happen? The grandmother was obviously not watching them very closely...

-8 ( +1 / -8 )

Was was this allowed to happen? The grandmother was obviously not watching them very closely...

How is that obvious? You obviously don't know how fast house fires can burn out of control in a wooden house.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

How is that obvious? You obviously don't know how fast house fires can burn out of control in a wooden house.

Either one of 2 scenarios is probable.

The boys were left unattended, and found a lighter, or matches. They started the fire themselves, because they were not being supervised properly.

or 2. The fire started through some other means, but the boys were unsupervised in another part of the house, and could not escape.

Either way the grandma was pretty negligent as best.

-6 ( +1 / -8 )

Or maybe the grandma was in the toilet when fire broke out. Or maybe she was putting laundry in the washer. Or maybe an of an infinite number of reasons.

Once again we have an armchair detective who reads a short article with limited information and thinks they know everything.

4 ( +7 / -2 )

Come on, lets face it, unless she was using the toilet in the convini down the road, or putting the laundry in some outhouse, then she would have been able to extinguish the fire. If she had been there, at the time, watching them, it would have never broken out.

Call me an armchair detective if you want, but What I do know is you cant leave a 2 and 1 year old unattended, even for a moment. The grandmother will have to live with her own negligence for the rest of her life, and in the meantime has deprived a couple of parents of their children. How anyone can defend her is beyond me.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Kimu, I am very vocal about crap parenting here but lord, you are so far fetched on this one. Ever thought that perhaps the kids were alseep in a bedroom while grandma was downstairs and the fire started for whatever reason. You can't watch over kids 24 hours a day and your comments are disgusting. Do you expect people to sleep with their kids and stand watch 24 hours a day? Good luck with that one.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Grandma is to blame.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

mark my words ... in about 3 days time an update of this article will be released. Something along the lines of "Grandma had gone to pachinko" or "She went shopping and came back and realised the house was on fire."

To be honest... your own kids, it is difficult - not impossible - to watch carefully when they are so young.

But someone elses children who have been entrusted to your care overnight? I know I would be watching them as well, if not more, than I would my own.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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