MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – A federal agency has launched an investigation into Monday’s washing machine accident that killed a 4-year-old girl – calling it the first one of its kind.

“We are investigating this tragic accident,” said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission – an agency charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products.

Since Jan. 1, 2004, the agency had three reports of other washing machine accidents that resulted in a child’s death. Those involved top-loading machines. The death of Kaylee Ishii, 4, of Mission Viejo is the first to involve a front-loading machine.

A new safety standard has been added to top-loaders that stops the agitator when the lid is opened.

The CPSC will look at whether this standard can apply to front-loader machines as well.

“We’re going to investigate the incident and look at how the standard is spelled out to protect children from front-loading and top-loading machines,” he said.

“We will do everything we can to view, obtain and receive safety information on the product involving a fatality. We don’t review any investigation of a child’s death routinely.”

The commission has only recalled two washing machines in its history.

In March 2005, a front-loading machine was recalled when its spinner malfunctioned and broke. In March 2007, a Maytag machine was recalled when it leaked water on an electrical circuit.

Monday’s tragedy occurred after the little girl climbed into the front-loading Kenmore 417 at her home.

Authorities now believe she died after her 15-month-old brother accidentally started the machine, possibly by bumping a start button located about 20 inches off the ground.

She tumbled inside for several minutes.

Homicide investigators determined that her death was accidental, Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said.

Kaylee was taken to Mission Hospital, where doctors treated her for about five hours before she died, Amormino said.

The CPSC has the authority to regulate the sale and manufacture of more than 15,000 different consumer products, from cribs to all-terrain vehicles, and from barbecue grills to swimming pools

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(c) 2009, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).

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AP-NY-02-05-09 1853EST