AUBURN — A Lewiston woman accused of setting fire to her apartment on New Year’s Day told investigators she used hairspray and a lighter to start two fires in and around electrical outlets.

Jackie S. McBurnie, 33, of 197 Bartlett St. appeared in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Wednesday on a single arson charge. Cash bail was set at $10,000. Conditions include no use or possession of accelerants and to stay away from properties owned by Rick Lockwood, owner of 168 Bartlett St., an apartment building destroyed by fire on Jan. 2. She had not posted bail at Androscoggin County Jail by the end of the day on Wednesday.

In a fire investigator’s affidavit, McBurnie confessed to starting a fire in a second-floor apartment in the Bartlett Street building on New Year’s Day by spraying the area around a kitchen outlet with hairspray, then igniting it with a lighter. Fire investigators found combustible materials shoved into the wall behind that kitchen outlet. She said she had become frightened after setting that fire and quickly put it out. 

McBurnie called the Lewiston Fire Department to report the fire, which caused minor damage.

About 10 hours later, at about 1:45 a.m. on Jan. 2, McBurnie had sprayed hairspray around an outlet in her sister’s bedroom in the same apartment and lit it, she told investigators. The resulting damage to the building was extensive.

Fire investigators had concluded that the fire originated in the bedroom of that apartment but couldn’t determine a cause.

Lewiston Fire Inspector Paul Ouellette said in the affidavit that he had become suspicious of the two fires at that address because he couldn’t find any indication of a “competent heat source” that could provide a reason for the fires. Hours after the Jan. 2 fire, Ouellette had learned that McBurnie had occupied two other Lewiston buildings where fires had occurred earlier in the year.

A fire on May 1 at 48 Birch St. had started when McBurnie dumped cigarette ash in a plastic trash can under a sink. That fire melted the trash container as well as the plastic plumbing under the sink, which resulted in water dousing the fire.

On Sept. 23, a fire erupted in a storage unit in a third-floor porch at 101 Birch St. McBurnie’s apartment was the only unit that had direct access to that storage unit, Ouellette said in the affidavit.

“Inspector Ouellette explained that after learning this information, he felt that it was suspicious that someone could have experienced four fires in a year’s time,” the affidavit says. Ouellette asked the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal to assist with the investigation.

After calling 911 in the wake of the first fire at 168 Bartlett St., McBurnie complained about that building’s electrical wiring as well as a lack of heat despite complaints from tenants. Power was disconnected to the kitchen outlet and McBurnie was allowed to return to the apartment.

McBurnie’s twin sister, Jennifer Costello, told investigators that she had shared her apartment with McBurnie since October after she lost her new apartment. Costello said she believed McBurnie had spent her rent money on drugs, according to the affidavit.

Costello said she had been staying in an apartment down the street since Dec. 30 where she had been taking care of dogs that belonged to a friend.

McBurnie had called Costello on the afternoon of Jan. 1 to report the kitchen outlet fire. McBurnie had asked her sister if she planned to return that night.

Isaiah Peppard, an investigator at the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal, wrote in his Jan 4. affidavit that he believed McBurnie expected the building at 168 Bartlett St. would be closed and its tenants relocated after the fire in her kitchen on New Year’s Day. Peppard also believed that McBurnie sent a text message to another tenant in the building to warn her about the Jan. 2 fire before it occurred.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com