![\"Balic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pictured-aila-balic-dob-10-125843996.jpg\")
Alia Balic appeared calm as she was taken out of the apartment on a stretcher Friday morning. William Farrrington for NY Post<\/p>\nA woman allegedly set her Tribeca apartment on fire and then tried to pin it on a phony burglary in a bizarre act of arson, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aila Balic, 30, claimed a burglar tried to light her 14 Murray St. apartment ablaze with Molotov cocktails when she called police shortly before 8:30 a.m. Friday. <\/p>\n
She was locked inside the apartment when cops arrived \u2014 as a small fire burned and smoke filled the air, according to the criminal complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alia Balic appeared calm as she was taken out of the apartment on a stretcher Friday morning. William Farrrington for NY Post<\/p>\n
The blaze was quickly tamped down and Balic was wheeled out of her home on a stretcher and sent to the hospital for evaluation.<\/p>\n
But police found a bottle of mouthwash with a rag stuffed inside it and no signs of forced entry into the third-floor apartment. One of the cops also noticed Balic had burn marks and soot on her hands, the complaint said.<\/p>\n
A fire marshal ruled the fire appeared to have been started intentionally, according to an FDNY spokesperson.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fdny-firefighters-small-fire-14-125844185.jpg\")
The small fire was quickly put out and Balic was later charged with arson. William Farrrington for NY Post<\/p>\n
Neighbors told The Post they didn\u2019t know much about Balic, but believe she lives in the apartment with her partner.<\/p>\n
She was charged with arson and reckless endangerment and arraigned Friday night. She pleaded not guilty and posted $5,000 bail, according to court records.<\/p>\n
Balic and her family members did not respond The Post\u2019s requests for comment. It is unclear if she has hired an attorney.<\/p>\n
The FDNY spokesperson said a preliminary fire report hasn\u2019t been completed yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman allegedly set her Tribeca apartment on fire and then tried to pin it on a phony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3094,303,544,75,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-202145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-arson","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-fires","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}