Hartford Courant
(TNS)
A woman was taken into custody on an arson charge on Friday after police say she admitted to starting a fire in the early morning hours at an apartment building in Bloomfield as crews helped her and others evacuate.
The fire sent one elderly victim to the hospital for smoke inhalation and left the apartment complex at 24 Dorothy Drive uninhabitable, displacing multiple residents, according to Capt. Stephen Hajdasz of the Bloomfield Police Department.
Fire crews responded to the building around 3 a.m. on the report of an active fire and began evacuating residents from inside with the assistance of police officers, Hajdasz said. As officers were assisting one of the residents out of the building, she allegedly “uttered that she is the one that set the fire,” Hajdasz said.
The resident, identified as 70-year-old Maria Salas, was taken into custody and charged with first-degree arson, according to Hajdasz. She was held on a $500,000 bond and was expected to face a judge on Friday.
According to Hajdasz, fire crews put out the blaze before it was determined that the building was uninhabitable. One of the residents, an 89-year-old woman, was taken to an area hospital as a precaution for smoke inhalation.
Hajdasz said Bloomfield Social Services and the American Red Cross responded to assist the residents who were displaced.
According to town property records, the two-story building houses 20 apartment units.
The fire remains under investigation by the police department’s Detective Unit along with the Bloomfield Center Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal.
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