Woman Accused Of Endangering Girls After Causing Fire
WHEATON (CBS) -- A Woodridge woman faces trial for allegedly imperiling two girls last week, after a makeshift religious shrine caught fire inside the woman's apartment.
Sunitha Budithi, 38, is free on bond and awaiting arraignment in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton. She is charged with two misdemeanor counts of endangering the health or life of a child, according to court records.
Woodridge police spokeswoman Kate Croteau confirmed Budithi was arrested following the Thursday morning fire in her first-floor unit at the Lincoln at Seven Bridges apartment complex, 6685 Double Eagle Drive.
Budithi is accused of leaving the children, both under the age of 10, inside the apartment and then going out to move a car from one location in the complex's parking lot to another, Croteau said Monday.
An incense burner or candle apparently had been lighted and left unattended at a shrine erected inside the apartment's hallway closet. An "open flame in the proximity of combustible material" touched off the blaze, a Lisle-Woodridge Fire District official said Friday.
Two fire medics rescued the girls from a bedroom adjacent to the burning closet. The children were treated at Edward Hospital in Naperville for smoke inhalation and later released.
A firefighter suffered a minor cut battling the blaze. No one else was injured, although 25 other residents of the complex were forced out of their homes for about two hours while the fire was being extinguished and investigated,
The relationship between Budithi and the girls was not known. Jimmie Whitelow, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, said Monday his agency is involved in the matter.
"DCFS is investigating allegations of neglect in this case," Whitelow said. "The children are currently in the care of a relative."
Court documents indicated Budithi has no prior criminal record in DuPage County.
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