The Latest: Man held in van fires that injured 2

FRIDLEY, Minn. – The Latest on a Minneapolis-area van fire that injured two girls (all times local):

4:10 p.m.

A 70-year-old man is being held after two vans caught fire in a northern Minneapolis suburb, burning two young sisters.

The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office says the man is being held on a negligent fires charge.

Authorities say the man owned a van that caught fire about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday in a Walmart parking lot in Fridley. That fire spread to a second van with two girls ages 6 and 9 inside. Both girls were hospitalized with critical injuries.

The children’s mother was inside the Walmart at the time the fire reached the second van.

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1:48 p.m.

Two young sisters were burned, one critically, when a van caught fire in a Walmart parking in a northern Minneapolis suburb.

Authorities say the girls were alone in the van Tuesday morning for 45 minutes to an hour as their mother shopped in the store in Fridley. A van next to the girls’ van caught fire around 7:15 a.m., and the blaze spread to the girls’ van.

Fridley police Lt. Jim Mork says a 6-year-old girl suffered critical burns. Her 9-year-old sister suffered less serious burns. The Star Tribune reports both were taken by ambulance to HCMC.

Mork says the girls’ mother was “hysterical.” He says the fire is not considered suspicious.

A woman sitting in the first van that burned escaped without injury.