Kristy Kay Kisselburg, 26, of Vian, owner of Miss Kristy’s Day Care and Learning Center in Sallisaw, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Sequoyah County District Court, Sallisaw, to one count of second degree arson and one count of endangering emergency service personnel life during arson.

Kisselburg is represented by attorney Donn S. Baker of Tahlequah. She was charged Sept. 24 after an investigation into a fire at her day care on Aug. 30.

Assistant District Attorney Ryan Wyrick said Kisselburg’s preliminary hearing was set for 9 a.m. Dec. 21.

Miss Kristy’s Day Care and Learning Center caught fire Aug. 30. The daycare received extensive damage from the fire that broke out in the kitchen area on the south end of the building, authorities said.

After an investigation and report by Fire Marshal Tony Rust, charges were filed against Kisselburg. Kisselburg has denied the charges all along, and said the fire was a mistake after she left a piece of chicken cooking in an oven, and which ignited the gasoline she was cleaning with.

Kisselburg’s bond was set at $20,000, which she paid when she surrendered to the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s Office.

Kisselburg said she was advised to not make any more comments.

During a previous telephone interview with Kisselburg, Kisselburg told Your TIMES she had spent most of the day Aug. 30 stripping the floors and baseboards in the daycare with gasoline. She said when she deep cleans she uses gas.

According to the State Fire Marshal’s report, the Sallisaw Fire Department was dispatched to Miss Kristy’s Day Care and Learning Center at 10:17 a.m. The fire department arrived at 10:20 a.m. Aug. 30, and saw the fire was in the south end of the building in the kitchen area.

Sallisaw firefighters Boyd Waters, Chase Manning and Randall Baker entered the building and did not encounter any fire when they entered the first room. They crawled down the hall to the south because of the dense smoke and found a small fire in the kitchen.

Tony Rust, Oklahoma State Fire Marshal investigator, reported, “When the three firemen extinguished the fire in the kitchen they noticed a strong smell of gasoline. They checked their gear they had on and realized they had gasoline on them,”

Rust reported when he entered the fire scene he noticed a strong odor of gasoline. Several towels were soaked with gasoline and lying around the door leading from the kitchen area into the hallway and into the main part of the building. Rust examined the kitchen and found a plastic container of gasoline sitting on the kitchen counter within two inches of the cook stove.

“A box in the southeast corner of the kitchen had fleece baby blankets inside soaked with gasoline,” Rust said in the report.

Those findings, a pour pattern on the floor and other evidence Rust found lead to the charges.