By Pauline Repard
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO — A woman was arrested on an arson charge Tuesday morning, suspected of setting a fire that damaged two apartments in City Heights and sent a teenager to a hospital with smoke inhalation.
The woman was taken to a county mental hospital for an evaluation, San Diego police said.
Other tenants told authorities they heard two people arguing shortly before the blaze broke out about 3:20 a.m. at a two-story apartment building on Van Dyke Avenue south of University Avenue, said Lee Swanson, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Fire heavily damaged one second-floor apartment and smoke damaged one directly below, Swanson said.
Residents evacuated the building. A 15-year-old was taken to a hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation and four people in the first-floor unit who also inhaled smoke were treated by paramedics.
It took firefighters about 20 minutes to extinguish the fire, but they had to return about three hours later when some hot spots rekindled, Swanson said.
Damage was estimated at $250,000. The fire displaced five adults and three children, including the teenager who went to the hospital.
Swanson said police initially detained a man and woman from the apartment that burned, then the woman was placed under arrest. The Metro Arson Strike Team was investigating the blaze.
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