Apart from the fire raging at the city dump, there were four other fires around the country this weekend and police suspect that at least 3 of those were arson. In the city Travis Olivera was charged with arson for burning down his girlfriend's house late Saturday night and neighbors tell 7NEWS this wasn't his first try. That's right, last week after an argument at her house on Levi Slusher Street in the Jane Usher Boulevard Area, Olivera had allegedly set his girlfriend Shirley Lambey's house on fire. That attempt didn't succeed and he was charged in court last week for attempted arson.
Tonight he is sitting in jail after his bail was revoked and the charge was upgraded to arson. After another fight, he again allegedly doused Lambey's small wooden house with kerosene and then lit it with a cigarette lighter this time the fire destroyed the house. Simone Torres lives next door and she heard the argument and then saw the flames.
Simone Torres, Neighbor
"Friday night all I heard was quarrelling. She went to the lady house, the green house, and asked them to call police. Then the man said that if nobody can't live in the house then he will burn it down, and so he burnt it down. The last time it was us who out it but this time when we got up, we just smelled the fire and we looked outside it was already big. Then my mom asked the lady over there to call fire truck to come. They came and then the investigator came."
Keith Swift,
You're saying this has happened before?
Simone Torres,
"The first they set it in the chair and after he left we tried to out it. Then we didn't even notice he set it on fire because we were on our verandah and when we peeped out we saw it. My mom made us get water and out it."
When Slusher appeared in court last week he was released on $2500 bail for the attempted arson. Today that bail was revoked and he was remanded until his next court date on April 21st 2005. Lambey meanwhile has told neighbors she plans to rebuild her house, which was valued at $5,000. She has no kids that we know of.
