Firehouse.com

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Oct. 26--KNOB NOSTER -- A 1-month-old baby is dead after an apartment fire at 402 W. McPherson St.

The baby, Justin Bailey, is the son of Robin and Jacob Bailey.

The State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the fire, which firefighters responded to at 8:38 a.m. Friday.

Police Chief Brian Kniskern said the infant had been left in a car seat carrier on top of the electric stove.

Kniskern said Robin told authorities she thought she had placed the baby on the kitchen counter to keep him away from his 19-month-old brother who was "running around in the house."

Robin told authorities she went upstairs, heard the smoke alarm and ran downstairs to find the baby on fire. She attempted to grab the carrier off the stove but could not due to the fire's intensity, Kniskern said. She sustained burns to both hands in the effort, he said.

Robin then grabbed the older child, placed him outside in the car, ran to neighboring apartments and started banging on doors to get help, Kniskern said.

An off-duty firefighter who lives in an apartment building to the east responded to Bailey's frantic knocks. He ran into the burning apartment but could not reach the baby. He and a police officer responding to 911 calls turned on a garden hose on the patio at the back of the apartment.

"(They) got the flames knocked down and got the baby out of the kitchen," Kniskern said.

But the child had died.

Firefighters arrived, extinguished the fire and vented the apartment.

Johnson County Coroner C.L. Holdren pronounced Justin dead at the scene and sent the body to the University of Kansas Medical Center for an autopsy.

The Johnson County EMS took Robin to the University of Kansas Burn Center for treatment.

Jacob, who had been at work at Tyson's, arrived the apartment and appeared distraught as he talked with authorities.

Kniskern said investigators sought to determine the cause and how long the fire burned before being reported.

The fire caused major kitchen damage mainly around the stove, he said, with smoke damage throughout the apartment. He said the child seat had melted.

Kniskern said he did not know who placed the initial 911 call. He said Robin had not used her cell phone, found on the kitchen floor, to report the fire.

Brenda Stowers said she answered Bailey's frantic knocking and, like other neighbors, reported the fire.

"That's how I was alerted," she said.