Hearing Held To Decide Fate Of Surviving Child Of Lauderhill Fire

LAUDERHILL (CBSMiami) - A Lauderhill mother who lost one son in a fire has been granted supervised visits with her surviving child.

Melanie Harvey wept at a dependency court hearing Wednesday afternoon at the Broward courthouse.

Harvey lost custody of her surviving son because police say she left her children home alone.

Harvey's 8-year-old son Jayden Isme died when fire swept through their townhome early Monday while Harvey was at work.

The children's father went to pick her up at 10 p.m. Sunday night to take her to a second job. He did not return to the townhome until it was fully engulfed in flames.

Click here to WATCH Joan Murray's report.

Justin Isme, Jayden's 9-year-old brother, jumped out a second story window and ran for help when the fire started but the life of 8-year-old Jayden could not be saved.

According to the boys' grandfather, the 8-year-old woke up first and alerted his older brother but he said that Jayden was reluctant to jump out the window after his older brother.

Following the fire, Justin is in the care of a teacher who is a family friend. Promithious Denmark says she taught his brother at Royal Palm Elementary.

"I want to provide some normalcy for Justin. But at the end of the day, we have a mother who lost a son and a father who lost a son."

The judge ordered grief counseling for Justin Isme who said that he and his brother were inseparable.

The judge told their mother she may have to take parenting classes and cooperate with the court if she wants to regain permanent custody of her surviving child at a later time.