A baby girl died and a toddler was in critical condition Saturday after they were left in separate vehicles in the Indianapolis area on a day in which the temperature hit 104 degrees, a record for the date.
Greenfield Police Chief John Jester said a 3-month-old girl was found in a car at 3:35 p.m., the Indianpolis Star reported. The girl was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Jester said the baby’s father, Joshua Stryzanski, 18, was being held at the Hancock County jail on a charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, the Star reported.
Greenfield is a city of about 20,000 east of Indianapolis.
In the other incident, at about 3 p.m. police broke a window in a Ford Explorer to free a 16-month-old girl in the city of Fishers, northeast of Indianapolis, the Star reported. The child suffered a seizure before being taken to an Indianapolis hospital, a Fishers police spokesman told the Star.
The temperature inside the SUV after the window was broken was 124 degrees, the Star reported, citing unnamed officials.
Fishers police said the child’s mother, Meg Trueblood, 30, of Fishers, was charged preliminarily with felony neglect of a child, the Star reported.
The National Weather Service said the temperature in Indianapolis hit 104 degrees, breaking the record for July 7 of 101, set in 1936. The all-time high for the city is 106, set on July 14, 1936.
In the heat wave gripping the United States this week, at least 61 heat-related deaths have been reported, according to an NBC News count. That number does not include the baby’s death.
