Two children, left home alone in Louisiana, were killed in a house fire while their mother was out getting her hair done at a salon, US authorities said.
Officials say they are still figuring out what happened at the home in Bastrop on Monday evening. But "one thing is certain," said Brant Thompson, state fire marshal deputy chief. "Ciarria Johnson ... left her children unattended for hours as she was having her hair styled."
The victims are identified as 4-year-old Ta'shae Thompson Johnson and her 3-year-old brother, Clifton Thompson Johnson.
Johnson told authorities that she arranged for a neighbor to look after the children. But she hadn't, the deputy chief noted.
"Investigators later determined that Johnson, in fact, had made no such arrangements and that she had returned home only after she knew about the fire," he said.
There were two gas space heaters running when Johnson left, the fire marshal's office said.
Some combustible material left by a heater placed in the living room is the cause behind the fire, engulfing the single-family, wood-framed house in flames.
"It's really just heart wrenching, you know?" neighbor Johnny Hall told CNN affiliate KTVE. "I don't know what else to say."
Johnson is charged with two counts of negligent homicide. Source