EVERETT — The Everett city prosecutor does not plan to charge a babysitter with a crime for leaving her toddler sisters alone in an apartment in January, just before the room caught fire.
The older sister, 23, was babysitting identical twins Emma and Chloe, 3, on the afternoon of Jan. 29 at the Olin Fields apartments off Holly Drive. She told police she put the girls down for a nap, went to the parking lot and saw the building burning 20 to 30 minutes later, Everett Prosecutor Leslie Tidball said Friday.
The sister screamed to firefighters that the babies were inside, witnesses said. By then, flames had climbed three stories high.
In a dramatic rescue, Everett firefighters plucked the girls from the smoke-filled apartment on the first floor, in their mother’s bedroom. A fire captain and a probationary firefighter carried them to safety. The girls were covered in soot, but OK.
They spent a night at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Damage to the building and its contents was estimated at $700,000.
The fire’s cause remained under investigation for weeks. In March, it was ruled undetermined. Authorities were wary of giving too much credence to the girls’ account of what happened, because they are young and impressionable.
The girls’ mother, Sihaya Sweum, said she and her 23-year-old daughter have hardly been on speaking terms since that day in January. Sweum had hoped there would be legal consequences, but she learned Friday that charges would not be filed.
Tidball said police did not find evidence to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the sister committed the crime of reckless endangerment. The prosecutor recited state law: “A person is reckless or acts recklessly when he or she knows of and disregards a substantial risk that a wrongful act may occur and his or her disregard of such substantial risk is a gross deviation from conduct that a reasonable person would exercise in the same situation.”
Tidball noted the older sister tried to reach the girls in the burning room, but the fire stopped her.
Doctors found no injuries to the girls. However, they warned Sweum that, in the future, dormant medical issues could emerge.
“So far they’re doing fine,” Sweum said Friday. “When they talk about the fire, there’s no emotion behind it, or fear, or anything. They’re not having nightmares.”
The twins reunited with their rescuers in February.
At the time of the fire, Sweum was working two jobs to support her kids. She was working in another part of the county when the fire broke out. A neighbor called her.
The girls no longer have a babysitter. They go to daycare now.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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