Crime & Safety

Toddler Found Minutes Before Potential Blaze, Building Super Says

The superintendent of the apartment complex said all four stove burners were lit on high while 2-year-old was left home alone.

The 2-year-old left alone in a smoke-filled Roselle Park apartment on Tuesday was discovered just before the place would have gone up in flames, according to the building superintendent.

Richard Templeton, superintendent of Woodside Gardens in Roselle Park, told NJ.com that all four burners on the electric stove were lit on high and clothes were piled on top. He also said the child was in a bedroom just a few feet away from an iron smoldering on top of a pile of clothes, the article said.

The mother of the child, Murlande Colin, 26, was arrested on Tuesday outside of Rockn’ Joe in Cranford. She was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

The 2-year-old was discovered after a neighbor reported seeing smoke coming from the first-floor apartment. Templeton, another complex employee and a social worker entered the smoke-filled apartment and heard noises coming from the bedroom.

Upon entering the bedroom, the three discovered the girl who was taken to a nearby hospital. She is expected to make a full recovery, Acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park said.

Colin is being held on $25,000 bail.


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