Toddler Left In Hot Car Rescued At DC Home Depot

WASHINGTON, DC — Fire investigators rescued a 2-year-old boy from a hot car in a Home Depot parking lot in Northeast DC Monday, WJLA reports.

Two fire investigators — Hankim Carroll and Jim Taylor — were at the Home Depot buying supplies when employees alerted them of a toddler left in a car on the 88-degree day.

When the firefighters arrived to the scene, they tapped on the glass of the car window and got no response from the boy.

The fire investigators then used a baton to smash open the car window and pull the boy to safety.

"Once the medics actually checked him out and said he was ok, I felt really relieved," Carroll told WJLA.

Police arrested the dad, who returned to his car minutes later. He's being charged with first-degree cruelty to children.

See the WJLA post here.

Safety advocates stress that a child’s body can overheat three to five times faster than an adult.

"It is never OK to leave kids or pets in a car — even with the windows down,” Dr. Christopher McStay, an emergency room doctor and assistant professor of emergency medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center, told WebMD. “It is an absolute no-no."

Take action if you see a child alone in a vehicle. Call 911 immediately.

Last year, a total of 39 children died when left in hot cars nationwide, and five heatstroke deaths have already happened in 2017 in the United States, according to noheatstroke.org.

Common factors in the cases of hot car deaths are parents who are stressed, functioning on too little sleep or changing a daily routine, say experts.

The public can help by taking immediate action if a child is alone in a vehicle in the heat.

"Call 911, and try to find the driver," says Janette Fennell, founder and president of KidsAndCars.org. "But if the child is in imminent danger, it may be necessary to break the window furthest away from the child to rescue them."

Patch File Photo