they saw a handful of “goth” girls, dressed in all black

Four teenage girls have been charged in a Thursday fire that damaged an East Brainerd landmark, a Chattanooga Fire Department spokesman said.

Bruce Garner, a fire department spokesman, said the North Georgia girls — two 15-year-olds, one 14 and one 13 — were charged with arson, reckless endangerment and reckless burning. They were booked into the Hamilton County Juvenile Detention Center on Monday. They are not identified in accordance with Chattanooga Times Free Press policy on not naming juvenile suspects.

The mother and father of two of the girls voluntarily brought them in for questioning after learning of the fire at the old Narrowbridge restaurant, Capt. James Whitmire said. The girls’ mother said she took the pair, along with two friends, to Heritage Park on Thursday night.

The mother told investigators she sat in the car reading while she thought the girls were playing, Mr. Garner said. Investigators said that’s when the four teenagers started the fire inside the abandoned structure. The building is next to Heritage Park. The other two girls were located and arrested Monday, Mr. Garner said.

Two 16-year-old friends, who also were in the park that evening, said they saw a handful of “goth” girls, dressed in all black, playing with matches inside and around the building.

“They all had matches, and they were lighting them on the side of the house,” said Brittany Carden, 16. “They’d light a fire and then stomp it out with their feet.”

Miss Carden and her friend left the building to sit by a creek behind the building, she said.

“We came back, and it was on fire,” Miss Carden said.

All that happened around 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The fire damaged two rooms in the abandoned building at 7801 East Brainerd Road. It took firefighters about an hour and a half to beat back the flames, which had moved up walls into the attic and onto the roof, Mr. Garner said.

Eight Chattanooga fire companies responded to the incident along with police, emergency medical services and county rescue units. No one was injured, but Mr. Garner said the fire endangered many people.

“It’s not just a risk to the emergency responders, but sending our trucks down East Brainerd Road at rush hour presents hazards,” Mr. Garner said. “It endangered motorists’ lives, not to mention the firefighters.”

Ten years earlier the Narrowbridge, with a red-brick facade and white columns, was one of Chattanooga’s nicer restaurants, several former patrons said.

Late in 2007, the city entered a deal with Tim Hennon, the building’s former owner, to swap parking spaces downtown for the surrounding property and restaurant building, which will be demolished and turned into a botanical garden, said Richard Beeland, a spokesman for Mayor Ron Littlefield.

CHARGES

Four North Georgia teenage girls have been charged in connection with Thursday’s fire at the former Narrowbridge restaurant. Here are their charges:

* Arson

* Reckless endangerment

* Reckless Burning