A North Carolina mother has been arrested months after a devastating house fire claimed the lives of her two young children — and authorities now say her negligence played a tragic role in the fatal blaze.
Rodreika Porter, 34, was taken into custody Thursday by Ahoskie police and charged with two counts of felony child neglect inflicting serious bodily injury. The arrest was made on behalf of the Raleigh Police Department, where the fire originally occurred. Porter had apparently moved to Ahoskie, about two hours east of Raleigh, since the deadly incident.
The fire broke out around 6 a.m. on September 29, 2024, at a home on Cantwell Court in Raleigh. Inside were Porter’s children — a 1-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy — who were rushed to a nearby hospital but tragically pronounced dead.
In the months following the fire, disturbing new details emerged. According to court records obtained by local outlet WRAL, Porter was not at home when the fire started. A witness allegedly told police she was “up the block getting high” as the blaze spread through the home.
Though Porter reportedly denied using drugs or alcohol, a social worker claimed she tested positive for fentanyl, cocaine, and marijuana — and may have also been drinking.
But what makes the tragedy even more horrifying is that investigators believe Porter herself caused the fire. A search warrant states that she had been heating a pan of oil on the stove to cook pork chops and fell asleep, leaving the burner on. The warrant also mentions that Porter was awakened by the smoke — contradicting the earlier claim that she was blocks away at the time.
One fact that doesn’t appear to be in dispute is that once the fire began, Porter tried to save her children. Authorities say she pulled them from the burning home and ran outside screaming for help.
“The dead of night — we just hear banging, banging, banging and screaming,” one neighbor told WRAL at the time. “We wake up, we come outside, and the woman is just holding her children. They’re lifeless.”
Porter herself was not injured in the fire, officials confirmed.
Now, nearly a year later, she’s facing serious charges as police say the deadly fire never should have happened — and that two small children paid the price for her choices. The investigation is ongoing.
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Author: thedailycrime1
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