Toddler From Polygamy Reality Show Dies in Fire

Adonijah Foster, 2, died of smoke inhalation
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 19, 2018 3:58 PM CDT
Toddler From Polygamy Reality Show Dies in Fire
Polygamy advocate Enoch Foster, center, poses with his wives Catrina, left, and Lillian, right, as she hold their baby Adonijah while people gather at the Utah State Capitol to protest a lawmaker's proposal that would make polygamy a felony crime again Monday, March 7, 2016, in Salt Lake City.   (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Police say a 2-year-old boy whose polygamous family is featured on a reality TV show has died following a fire in a southeastern Utah home, the AP reports. The Deseret News reports Adonijah Foster died of smoke inhalation Saturday after a fire ignited in the room where he was sleeping. Members of the toddler's family star in TLC's Three Wives, One Husband, which shows the lives of members of a community belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Adonijah's birth was featured on the show. The San Juan County Sheriff's Office says family members tried to revive the child before emergency personnel arrived at the house. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities say two others in the house were treated for smoke inhalation and released the same day. The boy's father, Enoch Foster, tells the Salt Lake Tribune it's not yet clear how the fire started, but says Adonijah had been playing with matches earlier in the day before a sister took them away. The fire started after he had been put down for a nap while his parents worked on their ranch. "I'm unsure if maybe he still had some matches," Foster says. "Maybe there was something smoldering that [his sister] didn’t see. And we don’t know if it was him or maybe his older brother that was playing with them." A 7-year-old sister was able to pull a 3-year-old brother out of the room to safety.

(More child death stories.)

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