Chattanooga Police child abuse investigators have arrested the mother of a six-year-old girl who was badly burned in a cooking fire on Tuesday in an apartment at Harriet Tubman Development.
Erica Springs, 28, was charged with reckless endangerment.
Ms. Springs told police that at the time her daughter was burned, she was out shopping with a friend.
Ms. Springs’ children and the children of another woman were left in the care of an elderly acquaintance.
Dynasty Nicole McMillian was attempting to cook something when her clothes caught fire. She received second- and third-degree burns over 40% of her body after the flames engulfed her shirt and pants.
Dynasty was flown from T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., for treatment of her injuries.
As of Tuesday night, she was listed in stable condition.
The girl was reportedly attempting to cook something on an electric stove just before 1 p.m. when her clothes somehow caught on fire. The girl panicked and ran out the back door. She then reportedly ran around the apartment building, with her clothes still on fire, to a neighbor's apartment.
The neighbor helped put the fire out and removed the burning clothes from the girl's body while someone called 9-1-1.
Chattanooga firefighters arrived moments later, but there was no fire to put out in the kitchen. The only thing that caught fire was the girl's clothes.
There were three other younger children in the apartment at the time as well as an elderly adult male.