Three teenage girls have been arrested in Citrus Heights, California, after allegedly hurling a lit firecracker through a nursery window, sparking a fire that destroyed the room.
The incident occurred on June 30 when the girls were filmed igniting and throwing the firecracker into the home's nursery, which was being prepared for an expected baby boy. Surveillance footage shows two individuals lingering outside the apartment before noticing a security camera, then peering into an open window, lighting the firecracker, and tossing it inside before fleeing.
Firefighters responded to the scene and found a mattress inside the bedroom ablaze. While the fire was quickly contained, thick smoke and heat caused significant damage, ruining the room intended for the couple's unborn son, Noah.
Anthony Cadena, the expectant father, was home playing a video game when his wife alerted him to the fire. He rushed to the nursery and, with the assistance of a passerby, used a garden hose to slow the flames until emergency services arrived. No one was injured in the fire.
"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," Lellises Morgans, the baby's mother, told ABC10.
The expectant parents have launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of rebuilding the nursery and replacing essential baby items, with the fundraiser having already generated approximately $25,000.
