A Charleroi man is behind bars after court records say he left two little girls in a hot car in South Strabane on Sunday. EMS crews transported them to the hospital, but their conditions are unknown.

Court documents said medics took two girls, 9 months and 3 years old, to the hospital for medical emergencies Sunday afternoon after they were found in a hot car in the Walmart parking lot. The 3-year-old was unresponsive at the time.

South Strabane police said the girls were locked in a car that wasn't running with the windows closed for about 45 minutes. Their mother told officers they were being cared for by a man named Fritzson Charles. Police arrested him on multiple charges, including endangering the welfare of children. The chief told KDKA he's not the kids' father.

On Tuesday, Lisa Richmond of Washington was feeling the heat after driving to the Walmart off Trinity Point Drive.

"These temperatures are awful," Richmond said.

She wasn't the only one. Mitchell Blackhurst of Eighty Four was in the same boat.

"It was sweltering," Blackhurst said.

It's brutal inside a car that's been parked outside in these temps, and the impact is that much greater on kids.

"It just upsets me, really bad that, how could somebody do that?" Richmond said.

According to Kids and Car Safety, a nonprofit that works to prevent injuries and deaths of children involving motor vehicles, more than 1,100 children have died in hot cars in the U.S. between 1990 and 2024. So far, 15 have died this year, including one in Mansfield, Ohio.

Dr. Kavitha Conti with UPMC Children's Pediatric Emergency Medicine said a car can rise 20 degrees in just 10 minutes, so even a 75-degree day can quickly reach 95 degrees inside a car.

"Their bodies actually heat up, especially the little ones, they can heat up three to five times faster than a grownup's body can," Dr. Conti said.

Conti said cracking a window doesn't do much to cool a car down. She urges you to take your child with you if possible and to leave your purse in the backseat or to give yourself some kind of cue to remind you your child is in the car.

"This is something that's very preventable and it's not usually intentional, this is all accidental, and it can happen to anyone," Conti said.

Charles remains in the Washington County Jail without bail, awaiting his preliminary hearing on July 22.