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Bronx Mom Indicted for Leaving Daughters Alone at Home Before Fatal Fire

 Adama and Jainabu Jabie, 18 months old and 2, died in a Butler Houses blaze, officials said.
Adama and Jainabu Jabie, 18 months old and 2, died in a Butler Houses blaze, officials said.
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DNAinfo/Valeria Ricciulli

THE BRONX — A Bronx mother was indicted for leaving her two young daughters alone in a Claremont apartment while incense was burning, sparking a fire that killed them and injured others, District Attorney Darcel Clark announced Tuesday.

Haya Konte, 27, faces two charges of criminally negligent homicide, according to the DA's office. 

On April 13 Konte left incense burning in two places while she left Jainabu Jabbie, 2, and Adama Jabbie, 18 months, alone in their third-floor Butler Houses apartment at 1368 Webster Ave. to do laundry across the street, the DA said. The incense set off a blaze that killed the two girls and injured a half dozen other people in the building.

“The loss of these two young girls is a devastating consequence of their mother’s seemingly innocuous actions,” Clark said in a statement.

Konte was also charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

She was arraigned in Bronx Supreme Court on Tuesday and released without bail, the DA said.

Konte is due back in court on Sept. 7.

Information about her lawyer was not immediately available.