The blaze in an East Tampa home is under investigation.
By Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer
Published September 9, 2005
TAMPA - A newborn baby boy died Friday in an early-morning fire that destroyed his family's east Tampa home.
Tampa Fire Rescue investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire that began just after 2:30 a.m. at 3307 E Chelsea St., in a wood-frame front room where 21/2-month old Aaron Gray Jr. slept.
The baby's parents, 22-year-old Aaron Gray Sr. and his girlfriend Brianna Hopson, the baby's mother, were not at home when the fire broke out, according to fire rescue spokesman Capt. Bill Wade.
Gray said he left the baby, his firstborn, in the care of his half-brother, 26-year-old Maurice Robinson, while he visited a friend nearby.
Wade said Robinson, one of six adults living in the 1,770-square-foot cement block home, told investigators he walked out of the baby's room for a few minutes and saw smoke and flames when he returned.
"It was not real clear why he left the room," Wade said, adding that investigators believe the fire was accidental.
Firefighters from three stations arrived at the home six minutes after it was reported to dispatchers, and it took 30 minutes to get it under control.
But by the time they were able to get into the front room, little Aaron was dead, Wade said. The family did not have a smoke alarm in the house, Wade said.
"I fault myself," Gray, the baby's father, told the Times. "I feel like if I would have been here, he wouldn't gave gotten burnt up. He would have been in my arms, you know? But I wasn't even gone 30 minutes."
