A Union City woman faces felony arson and other charges after Erie police accused her of setting fire to a multi-unit apartment house in the city June 5.<\/p>\n
No one was reported injured in the fire at 620 E. 12th St., although five people who were inside the house had to scramble to safety, including two people who jumped out a window, authorities reported June 8.<\/p>\n
Nicki Lee Titus, 43, was arraigned June 6 on felony counts of arson, aggravated arson, reckless burning, risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief, along with misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person. She was placed in the Erie County Prison on $50,000 bond and is tentatively scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing June 29, according to information in her criminal docket sheet.<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Titus was not listed on the docket sheet June 9.<\/p>\n
Erie police accuse Titus of using a lighter to start a fire on the enclosed back porch of the house, which contains three apartments. The fire spread up the inside and outside of the rear wall and traveled into the attic, causing some damage there, Don Sauer, chief fire marshal for the Erie Bureau of Fire, said June 8.<\/p>\n
More: Erie man accused of setting February fire in his clothing business<\/a><\/p>\n The house was occupied at the time of the fire by one person in the first-floor front apartment, two people in the first-floor rear apartment, and two people in a second-floor apartment, Sauer said. The fire trapped the two people in the first-floor rear apartment, and they had to escape through a window, he said.<\/p>\n Titus had no known connection to the house and no one who lived there knew her, according to Erie police.<\/p>\n Contact Tim Hahn at\u00a0thahn@usatodayco.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n