Miss. Mother of Children Rescued From Fire Arrested

Feb. 14--BILOXI -- Police have arrested the mother of two children rescued from their burning home, charging her with two counts of felony child neglect.

Police Sgt. Christopher DeBack said investigators believe Brenda Maria Salas-Aguliar, 27, had left the children unattended while she went out shopping today.

The family was one of several living in a home set up like apartments on DeSoto Street.

The mother was taken to the Harrison County jail and held on bonds of $50,000 set by Justice Court Judge Bruce Strong.

Fire Chief David Roberts said the two children pulled from a burning home by firefighters on DeSoto Street this afternoon probably wouldn't have survived had it not been for the firefighters' quick response.

Officials have confirmed the children, believed to be 4 and 5, were breathing on their own after firefighters performed CPR and the children were taken to a hospital by ambulance. A man who apparently lives in the home also was taken for treatment of cuts to his legs and hands from escaping through the front window.

Whether the injured man is related to the girls has not been confirmed.

"There are a lot of language barriers," Roberts said of the Spanish-speaking families who lived there.

The fire was reported at 12:11 p.m. and firefighters began to arrive at 12:15, Roberts said. The first unit began attacking the fire in the front of the house and the second unit, which arrived in 15 to 20 seconds, went to the back of the home and realized two children were in the back of the wood-frame house.

"A few seconds longer and those children may not have made it," Roberts said. "The firefighters are well-trained and they did what they were supposed to do. It paid off."

Firefighters Chris Denton and Andy Cosper were the two who went looking for the children.

"We had to feel our way around," Denton said. "We couldn't see."

Cosper passed one child to firefighters outside while Denton continued looking for the second one, and Capt. Stephen Dunaway began performing CPR in the front yard with the help of other firefighters.

"They looked like little baby dolls," Dunaway said.

Battalion Chief Tony Murphy said the adrenaline was so high that firefighters required extra air tanks to put out the fire.

"When your heart is beating 1,000 times a minute and you know children are inside, you are going to use up your air tank more quickly," Murphy said.

Louis Mendoza, who escaped the fire without injuries, said he rents a room in the house and woke up when he smelled smoke.

"I couldn't see to get out," he said.

Mendoza, speaking in part through an interpreter, said he crawled out through a broken window, and called his wife at work to see if she knew whether the two children who live in a different room were home.

He said he believed the injured man may have been the girls' father, but he wasn't sure. The unidentified man cut himself going through the window, Mendoza said.

Sunherald.com updates this story Wednesday.

Copyright 2012 - The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.