Cops: 2-year-old girl dies in fire after being left home alone

(INSIDE EDITION) - Police have arrested the mother of a two-year-old girl, who perished in a New York house fire after being left alone, police said.

Neighbors said the mother was an exotic dancer who had previously left the child unattended to go to work.
Kalenah Muldrow was found dead under a bed in a Brooklyn row house after her mother, Leila Aquino, showed up two hours after the blaze erupted.

Neighbors called the child a "beautiful" little girl, WCBS-TV reported.

"That's a sign of being scared right there. You're found underneath your bed, you don't know what's going on," neighbor Malcolm Yates told the station. "I could imagine the first thing she was looking for when she woke up was her mother. Like, where's my mom?"

Aquino was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment, police said.

She was lead out of the 81st police precinct in handcuffs Wednesday and did not answer questions, the station reported.

Aquino initially told police she had left the toddler with a babysitter, but later acknowledged she had left the girl alone with a television turned on for company, the station said.

Citing sources, WCBS said child welfare authorities had been summoned last week to the home after receiving a report that Aquino left the girl alone while she went to work as a stripper.

The fire may have been started by an electric space heater, according to local reports.

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