PONTIAC, Mich. – A 27-year-old Pontiac woman was arrested Wednesday after she piled her teenage brother's property in the driveway and lit it on fire next to her home with four young children inside, police said.
Police said they arrived at a home in the 700 block of Pensacola Avenue at 7:33 p.m. and saw a large fire in the backyard. The fire spread to a shed in the backyard and then a rear section of the house.
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A woman was outside trying to put out the fire with a garden hose. Police called the Waterford Regional Fire Department, and firefighters extinguished the fire before it spread to the rest of the home.
The woman told police she lives at the home with her four children and her 15-year-old brother. She has a 6-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl, a 1-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. They were all evacuated from the home safely.
No one was injured.
The woman told police her brother had assaulted her, so she called the Oakland County Sheriff's Office to report him. He left the home after the call, so she gathered his items from the shed and piled them up in the driveway.
She poured lighter fluid on his possessions and lit them on fire, but the flames got out of control and spread to the shed and the back of the home.
The woman said she started the fire because she was angry about being assaulted and had been drinking alcohol throughout the day.
She was taken into custody and is being held in the Oakland County Jail pending arson charges.
The children were turned over to their father.
Police are investigating the assault accusations against the 15-year-old boy.
Stay with ClickOnDetroit.com for updates.