A 13-year-old girl on Friday was ordered to remain in juvenile custody pending an arraignment on charges stemming from the July 14 blaze that destroyed a Kensington Park home and fatally injured two young girls.
Chatham County Juvenile Court Judge Lisa Goldwire Colbert made the custody determination during a detention hearing. The Savannah Morning News generally does not identify juveniles in the preliminary stages of the court process.
The child’s next court appearance is an arraignment scheduled for Monday.
The girl is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter and an arson count in connection with the fire in the 200 block of East DeRenne Lane. Savannah Fire & Emergency Services firefighters plucked two girls, ages 13 and 6, from a bedroom at the burning house about 2 p.m.
Neither girl has been publicly identified.
Both of the girls were rushed to Memorial University Medical Center where they died from their injuries four days later.
The third girl, who’s suspected of starting the fire, was able to escape unharmed before firefighters arrived to the scene of the fire.
Fire officials initially said the fire started in a dryer in the single-story, brick building but later said it appeared to have started “in the area of the dryer.”