July 09--ROCK HILL -- The Rock Hill woman who said she passed out while drinking and dropped a lit cigarette, sparking the fire that destroyed several units of Oak Hollow apartments and displaced 25 people, was arrested Tuesday, charged with intentionally setting the flames, according to police.
Suyatta Johnson, 27, is charged with second-degree arson and attempted murder, said Rock Hill Police Executive Officer Mark Bollinger. She is held at the Rock Hill jail awaiting an afternoon bond hearing.
The early-morning fire at Oak Hollow, at the intersection of Finley Road and South York Avenue in southern Rock Hill, tore into several homes last Tuesday and forced three people --including a pregnant woman and 8-year-old girl-- to jump from their second-floor apartments to safety. The blaze caused an estimated $600,000 in damage to the apartments and left Johnson's apartment, where the fire started, filled with charred ashes and debris.
Firefighters used an estimated 30,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames that reached from Johnson's first-floor apartment to the building's roof.
Last week, Johnson told reporters she was in her apartment with her boyfriend when the flames broke out. She said she had been drinking but fell unconscious and dropped a cigarette she had been smoking. She awoke when she felt heat coming from the bed and ran out.
She then began knocking on neighbors' doors to warn them about the fire. When firefighters and police officers arrived on scene, they ushered residents, many of whom were asleep, out of their apartments and into the nearby parking lot.
Police last week found Nesbitt with burn injuries. He did not seek medical attention.
Hours after the blaze, police questioned Johnson, but soon released her. Neighbors who assembled in the parking lot after the blaze speculated about the cause of the flames, and some placed blame on Johnson.
Johnson said she was released earlier this year from Piedmont Medical Center's psychiatric ward and had been diagnosed with depression. She took several medications, including Lithium and Prozac, all of which burned in the fire.
Police last month charged Johnson with two counts of throwing bodily fluids on a law enforcement officer and public disorderly conduct after they say she pretended to be unconscious and then spit on officers when she refused to leave a woman's apartment. Last week, she pleaded guilty to two counts of resisting arrest and received credit for time served, court records show.
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VIDEO BELOW
Suyatta Johnson talks about the fire last week.
Copyright 2013 - The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)
