Woodridge woman sentenced after shrine sparks fire

A Woodridge woman whose religious shrine sparked a fire while two children were home alone in her apartment has pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, court records show.

Sunitha Budithi, 40, was scheduled to stand trial Wednesday but entered the plea Jan. 7. She received two years of court supervision and was ordered to spend five days in the DuPage County Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program, according to a plea agreement approved by Judge Jane Mitton.

Budithi was moving her car early May 19, 2011, when a candle set up as part of a religious shrine ignited combustible materials inside a hallway closet at her apartment on the 6600 block of Double Eagle Drive, authorities said.

Two girls, then ages 2 and 6, were in the apartment alone at the time. Their relationship to Budithi was not clear.

Firefighters from the Lisle-Woodridge Fire Department took the children to Edward Hospital in Naperville, where they were treated for smoke inhalation and released.

Budithi had no prior record in DuPage.