The commercial facility parking lot where a car caught fire with a 1-year-old boy and his 4-year-old brother inside is seen in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Aug. 1, 2021. (Mainichi/Naoko Takashiba)

       KURUME, Fukuoka -- A car at a commercial facility parking lot in this southwest Japan city caught fire on Aug. 1, leaving a 1-year-old boy who was left inside the vehicle in critical condition.

       The fire started at around 11:50 a.m. on Aug. 1 in the Fukuoka Prefecture city of Kurume. The boy was rescued and transported to the hospital, but he suffered burns over his entire body and remains unconscious.

       According to Fukuoka Prefectural Police's Kurume Police Station, the boy's mother, 33, drove him and his 4-year-old brother to the facility. The fire apparently broke out after the mother left the two children in the car with the air conditioner on.

       The toddler was reportedly sitting in a booster car seat installed in the middle row of the vehicle. The mother sustained minor burns on her left arm and other parts of her body when she returned to the car to rescue the boy. The older brother safely escaped from the vehicle. The fire was extinguished about an hour later after it destroyed the car. A vehicle that had been parked next to the woman's car was also partially burned.

       The police station is investigating how and why the children were left inside the vehicle and the cause of the fire.

       A woman who lives nearby said in a trembling voice, "I heard explosive sounds many times, and the blaze was about 2 meters high. I also heard a woman screaming."

       (Japanese original by Naoko Takashiba, Kurume Bureau, and Rokuhei Sato, Kyushu News Department)

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