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Lynh Bui
A journalist specializing in public safety and criminal justice
A woman who was angry at her boyfriend was accused of setting fire to a fire that ravaged an apartment complex in Maryland last month, fire officials said.
Natasha Ciara Joyner, 32, of New Carrollton, was charged with arson and arson in the huge fire that displaced 130 people from Hilltop Apartments, Prince George's Fire County said Friday in a statement.
Joyner confessed in a written confession that she had lit the sheets with a lighter in the apartment because she was angry at her boyfriend at the time, according to police who allegedly documents.
The three-alarm fire damaged four apartment buildings and caused about $ 2.2 million, the fire department said. The fire was reported shortly before 15:30. September 17 and began in a three-story garden style apartment located in the 5300 block of 85th Avenue in New Carrollton.
Firefighters took almost two hours to extinguish the fire.
[Firefighters battle three-alarm blaze at New Carrollton apartment building]
The spokesman for the Prince George County Fire Department, Mark Brady, said that the fire hydrants surrounding the apartment complex did not provide sufficient water pressure or water. sufficient volume to allow firefighters to fight the flames. Crews routed watering pipes to water outlets about a quarter of a mile to put the buildings out, Brady said, but by then, "we were catching up."
Brady said that a correction order had been issued to the apartment management company in order to repair the fire hydrants with a scheduled follow-up inspection. Until the fire is repaired, the fire department will send additional units for future calls to this location, Brady said.
A woman who answered the phone indicated for the Hilltop apartments declined to comment.
Joyner's name appeared on the lease of the unit where the fire started, Brady said.
Police charged documents indicating that Joyner had first told investigators that she had left her house that morning, but the authorities then determined that she was at the scene before and during the fire.
Joyner, who has also been charged with malicious property destruction and reckless endangerment, is currently in custody in Prince George County Jail, the fire department said. Online court records did not mention a lawyer for her in this case.
Officials said that no one had been injured in the fire. But displaced residents are still working to rebuild their lives and find new homes after losing their property.
On Friday, as authorities announced an arrest, Lindel Schuyler, 33, was about to sign a new lease. Schuyler was living right next to the apartment where the fire started and said that everything in his apartment had been destroyed.
On the day of the fire, Schuyler was returning home after work to pick up his children when his ex-wife called. "I think your building is on fire," she recalls.
When Schuyler checked the news, he saw his house on fire.
Schuyler hoped that something could be saved in his apartment, but the authorities told him that the building was doomed and that the fire had started in the unit adjacent to his.
"Everything in my apartment was completely burned," said Schuyler.
Her two children were staying with her ex-wife, while Schuyler was swinging in hotels and in friends and family homes. Schuyler said that he had to start all over again, buying everything from new clothes to furniture, but he is grateful that no one was hurt and he found a new place to live.
"It was a bit difficult, but we managed," said Schuyler. "I look at him with optimism. It's a new start.
A resident who lived in the building where the fire started had just returned from work when he heard the fire alarm. He did not think there were many false alarms in the past, he said. It's really a fire!
The man, who asked not to be named for reasons of confidentiality, said he and his family had escaped with the few items they could carry, which was not much.
"I got up and saw that everything was burning," said the man.
The man, who lived with his sister and his family, said that the management of the apartment had quickly placed them in a new apartment. But recovering from the loss has always been difficult.
"For the most part, I'm just trying to get by," he said. "It's been a few weeks, but it's still wreaking havoc. Other than that, I thank God again for being alive. "
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