Sacramento-area arson: Teen girls arrested after throwing firecracker into baby nursery
Three teenage girls were arrested on suspicion of arson after police say they hurled a lit firecracker through a window, setting an unborn baby’s nursery ablaze just two weeks before his expected arrival.
The fire broke out around 7 p.m. Tuesday at a home on the 7700 block of Bierston Street in Citrus Heights, where firefighters found a mattress burning inside a bedroom, according to the Citrus Heights Police Department and the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.
Crews quickly knocked down the flames before they could spread beyond the room, but smoke damage blanketed the rest of the house.
No one was hurt.
For Anthony Cadena and his wife, Leslie Morgans, the room destroyed wasn’t just another bedroom, it was the nursery they had spent months preparing for baby Noah, who is due in less than two weeks.
“The whole baby’s room is torched. It’s done… all the rooms in the house are covered in soot… everything,” Anthony Cadena told ABC.
Cadena said he had been playing a video game elsewhere in the home when his wife alerted him that the house was on fire.
After opening the nursery door and seeing the bed engulfed in flames, he grabbed a garden hose and, with help from a passerby, kept the blaze under control until firefighters arrived.
Police said the fire stemmed from an earlier disagreement involving one of the girls who lives at the home.
Leslie Morgans said she was stunned that anyone could target a baby’s room.
“Seeing someone actually do that to someone’s house… they saw it was a baby room… just to see that these girls just don’t care about anything… it’s unbelievable, honestly, that they would do something like that,” she told ABC.
The family said surveillance cameras captured the incident, and Anthony’s mother, Nancy Cadena, believes the footage helped lead investigators to the suspects’ arrests.
Despite the devastating loss, Morgans said the family has chosen forgiveness.
“Our family forgives these girls because that’s what we do. We’re not holding a grudge against them,” Morgan said. “I do hope that something happens to change their perspective. We just hope they learn their lesson from this.”
A GoFundMe organized by Anthony’s sister, Kristy, says the couple had finished preparing the nursery before someone intentionally threw a firecracker through the window, igniting the fire that destroyed everything inside.
The fundraiser says firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze, but the nursery had to be completely cleared out because it was no longer usable.
The family is seeking help replacing baby furniture, clothing, diapers, bottles and other essentials, while also covering the cost of repairing the fire-damaged room before welcoming baby Noah home.
