Woman charged with arson for fire at ex's South Kitsap home in August

A 32-year-old woman was charged with a count of arson for a fire at the South Kitsap home of a man she had been in a relationship with, according to court documents.

The woman was charged with a count of second-degree arson in Kitsap County Superior Court on Tuesday.

In the initial incident on Aug. 6, the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office and South Kitsap Fire and Rescue responded to a house fire on Menzies Road and found the woman stuck in some blackberry bushes near the house and yelling for help. First responders freed her, and she told them that after the fire started, she had jumped through a window and into the bushes where she had become stuck, according to court documents.

She smelled of gasoline and had several colors of paint on her body, and firefighters at the scene recognized that the colors on her body were similar to colors that were spray painted on the house and a truck at the scene. Investigators found a plumber's torch, several spray paint cans, obscene words painted on the house and paint sprayed on the vehicle.

Investigators spoke to a man who lived at the residence and reported that he had broken up with the woman several weeks ago and said she no longer lived there. The man said that she had mental health and drug problems and said that she was making "constant" threats that she was going to harm someone or harm him, a Kitsap County sheriff's detective wrote in a report.

He said that he had been away for his birthday weekend and returned home to find his house on fire.

The man found that the woman had left behind notebooks, which contained writing including the words, "PAY BACK 2 DAY," and the words, "Try to throw couch outside & Start Fire," the detective wrote.

A deputy fire marshal spoke with the woman, who admitted to damaging the vehicle and the house but said she had been burning items in a firepit outside and had spilled some gasoline on herself, the detective wrote. She said she then went inside, removed the soaked clothes, lit a cigarette with a propane torch and had caught her clothes on fire. She said she then had to jump out a window.

The man whose home was damaged by the fire spoke with another man who said he was with the woman at the scene, and that man reported to the detective that he had seen her at a store, where she asked him for help with her dog. They went to the house, and eventually she began "freaking out," the man said. He then realized that she had spray painted the side of the house and the truck and found her throwing things at windows.

He reported that at one point she grabbed her dog and injected it with chemicals and then grabbed a metal can and began pouring fuel over herself and the dog. She had a propane torch in her hand and "told him he had 15 minutes to get out of there and then she was lighting it. She continued to pour fuel on herself," the detective wrote. The man fled the area.

Another man who said he had known the woman for about 20 years and had helped her out in the past spoke to the detective and reported that she had called him and "said she had burned the house she was living in. She indicated she wanted a new life and just wanted to start over," the detective wrote.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Woman charged with arson for fire at ex's Washington home