A Gainesville mother has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Feb. 23 apartment fire that killed her two young children and two others.

A Hall County grand jury indicted 26-year-old Lelia Soto on Thursday on separate counts of involuntary man-slaughter and reckless conduct for each child. She had not been arrested as of Friday night.

Details on when a trial might be held were not available.

After turning on two stove eyes to heat grease and food, Soto left the children, all younger than 5, unsupervised in the Harrison Square apartment for more than 20 minutes, according to the presentment. By "consciously disregarding a substantial and justifiable risk," she endangered the children and caused their death, the document says.

In a special recommendation, the grand jury called the fire "completely preventable" and urged community leaders to educate parents, "especially those with a different background or culture," on child safety and standards of care.

Soto could face one to 10 years in prison for each of the four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The charge, which implies causing a death without intending to, is a felony because it resulted from reckless conduct, according to the grand jury. Reckless conduct is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

Killed in the late-morning blaze that engulfed Soto's brick apartment at 815 Harrison Square were Saul Jr. and Yamilet Olivas, Soto's children, and Mauricio and Jordy Diaz, the children of neighbor Florina Arriaga Castillo. Saul and Mauricio were 4. Yamilet, a girl, and Jordy, were 1.

Soto was babysitting the children in the public housing complex off Old Athens Road. But residents and police responding to the fire just before noon said she wasn't in the apartment when they arrived. One witness said she came out of Castillo's apartment, which is nearby.

Castillo said Friday that Soto should be charged. "She's guilty of leaving the kids alone in the house," she said softly as interpreted by her 13-year-old son.

Some of Soto's family members apparently told police the young mother fled after discovering the fire, thinking the children also had made it out.

Firefighters found the children in a front bedroom. They died of smoke inhalation.

An investigation determined that the fire started with two pans left cooking and unattended on the stove. The Gainesville fire marshal said the fire could have burned for 25 to 30 minutes.

Castillo said she didn't know why Soto, whom she had known about six months, would have been in her apartment. Sometimes she used the telephone there. Castillo was at work the morning of the fire.

The two haven't talked since the fire, she said. Soto had been staying with family.

In part because of the sensitive nature, the case was presented to the grand jury. "We just felt like this was the right way to go," Gainesville Police Chief Frank Hooper said.

The January grand jury, which was wrapping up its term, heard the evidence Thursday and decided to indict Soto.

The group also strongly encouraged civic and government leaders to address the education of parents on safety standards "in an effort to prevent this from happening in the future."

District Attorney Jason Deal could not be reached for comment Friday.

The tragedy wasn't the first for Castillo, who has two surviving children.

Just after midnight on Sept. 1, 2002, her husband Javier Diaz died when a pickup truck he was riding in crashed into a utility pole on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The wreck also killed another man.

The driver fled and hasn't been caught.