I once did an experiment with the fire jet from nightlife, a 2x1 walled room, a rug and a toddler, and found that toddlers CAN die from fire. If Toddlers are within a tile that contains fire, their needs will deteriorate faster, and I remember vividly that at one point the toddler disappeared from the household UI and then lay down like they had passed out and then began to fade away. Then the grim reaper came.

I checked with Rodney's death creator and when you make a toddler die from fire the same animation plays. Other deaths prompt an error because the animation for it does not exist for toddlers, however fire does.

Does anyone know why this was programmed into the game? Perhaps it was an oversight similar to the child death by flies? But then again, in that instance there was no animation for it but with toddlers there is.

This is the kind of experiment that I wuld never have the heart to do, I would feel so guilty! I suppose they considered this a plausible scenario for a toddler (death by fire, not a firejet in a doorless room ), after all if the toddler were to be inaccessible due to fire, the social worker would not be able to reach them. Or perhaps an oversight or code omission?

The social worker has powers of teleportation so could grab that baby out of the flames with their magical blue zapping power. However they would not have any reason to do this unless all the teens-and-older are dead. Social workers operate to very strict guidelines in the sims universe. Only certain kinds of child endangerment are considered a problem.

My speculation: Fire was probably one of the earliest deaths they coded in, and perhaps they just created it for everyone before thinking through the fact that it would be pretty horrific for a player to see a small child get burnt to death, and may raise the rating of the game somewhat. There is coding for adults to autonomously grab any babies/toddlers in the room with a fire and run outside with them, this will even override the "panic" action which tends to queuestomp everything else.

Only if there was a free square next to the toddler that wasn't on fire though, surely?

Not necessarily. Social workers will teleport inaccessible children from anywhere on the lot.

That's good to know, I don't think I've had enough toddlers in peril to ever find out!