LEWISTON — A Bartlett Street woman was charged Monday with setting a New Year’s Day fire in her apartment. She could face charges in a second Lewiston fire.
According to a news release by Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety, Jackie McBurnie, 33, is charged with the first of two fires started in the apartment she shared with her twin sister at 168 Bartlett St., which subsequently destroyed the building.
According to McCausland, fire investigators said she set fire to a kitchen wall. That fire was extinguished with minor damage.
About 10 hours later, around 2 a.m. Friday, a second fire broke out in McBurnie’s bedroom at the apartment where she lived with her two children, along her twin sister and her four children.
McCausland said the arson charge against McBurnie stems from the first fire, but she is likely to face an additional arson charge for the second fire.
Fire investigators worked closely with Lewiston police and the Lewiston Fire Department on the case.
According to McCausland’s release, McBurnie had been a resident of the Bartlett Street address for only a few months. She also had been a tenant at an apartment at 101 Birch St. in Lewiston that was destroyed by fire in September. That fire destroyed the four-story building and left 24 people homeless. Fire investigators said that fire started on a deck outside McBurnie’s apartment, according to McCausland’s release.
McBurnie’s mother, Nona Costello, said, “Jackie called and said this afternoon, ‘I’m going to jail mom — I’m going to jail.'”
Asked why, Costello said her daughter replied, “I set the fire.” Costello said McBurnie told her she was paid to start the fire.
“I raised them better,” Costello said.
Following the fire on Birch Street, McBurnie’s twin sister took McBurnie, her two children and the family cat to live with them — a total of eight people plus pets — at the apartment at 168 Bartlett St.
Costello said McBurnie’s sister helped Jackie get back on her feet.
Speaking of Jackie’s twin sister, Costello said, “My daughter has lost everything and she has four children — I’m heartbroken.”
Costello said all the children’s Christmas presents, as well as their other belongings are gone.
Costello said that after being put up at the Ramada Inn for three days, Jackie’s twin sister managed to secure an apartment for her and her four children on Monday but in her words, she “‘doesn’t even own a salt shaker.'”
“She’s just doing what she can for her family,” Costello said.
McBurnie’s two children have been sent to live with their father.
“One of my granddaughters isn’t doing well with it,” Costello said. “She’s not talking.” She said the devastation only a week after Christmas was too much for her.
According to Costello, McBurnie has been fighting substance abuse since her teens, when, after throwing knives at Costello, she was moved from the home and placed in a residential facility.
Costello said there have been attempts in the past to get her daughter clean but, “My life has been hell since she was like 15 years old — she’s got problems that I’ve begged her to get help for.”
Costello said McBurnie had two other children already removed by the state because of substance abuse issues. “It’s killing our family,” Costello said.
“I’ve done what I could for her — I stood by her,” Costello said. “I can’t fathom this.”
dmcintire@sunjournal.com
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