OAKLAND -- The 4-year-old boy who set off a large firecracker while left home alone last week was listed in fair condition today at Children's Hospital Oakland, but the extent of his injuries were not disclosed.

Hospital spokeswoman Diane Yee said she could not elaborate other than to give the boy's condition. Police reported earlier that he had been blinded in the right eye.

Meanwhile, the boy's mother, Adonneka Gilchrist, 26, was scheduled to be arraigned at 2 p.m. today in Alameda County Superior Court. She has been charged with two counts of child endangerment, with having abandoned an explosive. She also faces a possession of stolen property charge in connection with a pistol found in her apartment that had been reported stolen earlier in North Carolina.

At the housing project in the 1100 block of 65th Avenue where the explosion occurred last Thursday, July 10, a neighbor, Carl Goodman, said children who saw the little boy run out of his house in pain and terror have been severely traumatized.

"Those kids all saw him, they saw his hand and all of them are having trouble sleeping these days.

"I'm trying to get them some counseling," he said.

Goodman, who was the first adult on the scene and comforted the boy before an ambulance arrived, added he's feeling very upset himself. "When he came outside, the house was filled with smoke and I didn't know if anyone was inside, so I went in and called. But there was no one else home," he said.


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