A mother has been arrested after a 6-year-old girl was transported to the hospital for smoke inhalation following an apartment fire in Miami-Dade Thursday evening, authorities said.
Erica Angie Rosello, 32, was arrested early Friday and charged with child neglect causing great bodily harm, according to a Miami-Dade Police arrest report.
Rosello was being held on $7,500 bond Friday, jail records showed. It's unknown whether she's hired an attorney. Court records show she has faced charges of DUI and child neglect in the past.
The fire happened just before 8 p.m. Thursday at the Versailles Gardens Condominiums at 9400 West Flagler Street in Miami, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said.
MDFR said the fire was started while the child was left inside the apartment alone. They said the child's mother was outside or somewhere else around the complex.
"There was nobody else in the apartment that we have been able to locate," said Battalion Chief Andy Alvarez with MDFR.
Officials said they haven't determined how the fire started but know it likely started in the kitchen.
According to the arrest report, a witness said he saw Rosello in the hallway of the apartment complex then saw smoke coming out of her apartment door. He said he asked Rosello if something was on fire and she replied, "No, it's not a fire," the report said.
She told the witness only her daughter was inside the apartment, and the witness pulled the fire alarm and called 911, the report said.
The witness tried to get into the apartment but was unsuccessful, and fire rescue workers arrived a short time later and were able to get to the girl through a bedroom window, the report said.
"I picked her up and she started moaning, which was a good thing. But the top priority was to get her out," one firefighter explained.
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The child was transported to the hospital as a trauma alert, but was in stable condition.
"I'm grateful that the situation was such, that we were able to get her out as quickly as we did. Had we waited, say another three minutes, the outcome would've been different," the firefighter said.
The report said Rosello left the scene but called her mother, who convinced her to go to the hospital and cooperate in the investigation.
The child's grandmother, Angie Tabbio, has been granted legal custody of the 6-year-old girl.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
