8-month-old baby dies in St. Martin house fire

ST. MARTIN, Miss. (WLOX) - A devastating house fire Sunday afternoon resulted in the death of an 8-month-old baby.

Christy Beninati dropped off her two children, an 8-month-old and a 6-year-old, at her parents home Sunday. She says they usually watch her children while she’s at work. That day, Beninati’s mother had work, so her children were at the home with Beninati’s father and her two teenage siblings.

Beninati tells us she put the baby, Owen, in his bassinet before leaving for work. Around 4 o’clock, she got a call that the house was on fire. She rushed to her parents home, but it was too late. Firefighters found the baby in a bedroom after the fire was put out.

“I’m devastated, obviously. I never wanted to lose a child,” Beninati said. “You see things like this on TV, and you think it’s never gonna happen to you, and you’re never gonna have to deal with it... until it happens. You think maybe you’d know what to do, but you don’t. I don’t know what to do. I’m just taking it one day at a time and trying to cope.”

Mitchell Mixon, State Fire Marshal Supervisor, tells us the other 3 children were in the home at the time of the fire, but none were injured. There were no adults in the home at the time of the fire.

Mixon says the one-story, wood-framed home was extensively damaged in the fire, which appears to have started in the laundry room area. Investigators were on scene Sunday after the fire, and were back again Monday morning to work the case. Owen’s autopsy is set to take place soon.

“Owen was a happy boy. He was smiling and happy all the time, and he was beautiful and such a good boy,” Beninati said. “I was blessed to have 8 months with him.”

Beninati says she hopes this story will make people hold their babies and loved ones a little bit closer.

The family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for Owen’s funeral costs.

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