Bradenton infant dies in home fire. Older sister recounts how she couldn’t save him
Fourteen-year-old A’nyjai Clarke was in bed sleeping with her baby brother Lazier early Thursday morning when she smelled something and woke up, she said. The young teen looked over and saw there was a small fire on her bed.
The teen ran out into the other room to tell her family. Her uncle ran into the room, grabbed the mattress, threw it in the bathtub and turned the faucet on. In the commotion, the fire spread to the floor and the family rushed to get out.
“Everybody was pushing and I couldn’t get to him. Then when we got downstairs, I said, ‘Lazier is still up there,’” A’nyjai described hours later. “My cousin went upstairs to get him but he couldn’t get him because the roof started caving.”
Eleven-month-old Lazier Bennett died in the fire.
Deputies nearby on another call heard the screams from the burning quadplex in the 4300 block of Ninth Street East at about 1:30 a.m. and rushed over, according to a news release. When they learned about the baby, they rushed in.
But when deputies got to the top of the stairs, they saw that the entire second floor was engulfed in flames and the roof starting to collapse.
Firefighters worked to extinguish the fire, as deputies helped get the other families out of the quadplex. The boy’s body was found on the second floor.
Lazier would have celebrated his first birthday on Aug. 2.
The cause of the fire is being investigated by the State Fire Marshal, while detectives from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office also investigate the infant’s death. An autopsy was scheduled for later Thursday.
The children’s grandmother, Debra Robinson, said she thinks one of her other grandchildren may have started the fire.
“I think he was playing with a lighter or something,” Robinson said.
A’nyjai said her cousin and his stepbrother, both 8 years old, had been playing with a long lighter, showing each other how to use it. In addition to A’nyjai and the three younger children, her aunt, uncle, an older cousin and family friend were home at the time of the fire.
A’nyjai and Lazier’s sister was at home with her grandmother, according to Robinson, when she got the call.
“They called me and told me the house was on fire and the baby was still in there,” she said.
The death of her grandson brought up an all too familiar pain, “I lost a child a long time ago, and I know how painful that is.”
Lazier was remembered as a happy and energetic boy who loved to dance.
“You say, ‘Get it boy, get it boy.’ He would just bounce up and down. He liked that,” Robinson said as her granddaughter sobbed. Lazier was always excited to see A’nyjai.
“He will be truly missed. We were planning his birthday. He was going to have a Boss Baby party,” Robinson said, describing how the family had already ordered him some custom shoes with the DreamWorks animated character on them.
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 3:28 PM.
