YORK, Pa. --
For the second time in less than a year, a failed suicide attempt at a York County apartment complex resulted in a major fire.
Police are charging Steven Sponseller, 49, with 231 counts of arson and other charges after they said he tried to kill himself by starting a fire with a candle in his third-floor corner apartment at the Suburban Park Apartments on Carnegie Road in Springettsbury Township. In March, another fire destroyed a building at the same complex. That fire was also blamed on a resident who investigators said started a fire in an attempt to commit suicide.
Police said Sponseller started the fire around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. After his apartment began to burn, he went onto his balcony and then jumped. He suffered minor injuries in the fall. A News 8 viewer e-mailed a picture of a burning third-floor apartment and said that her son saw a man sitting on the porch as it burned. She said after about five minutes, everything went up in flames and he jumped, and did not say a word to anyone. If you'd like to view the picture the viewer's son took, click here.
The fire destroyed the building, leaving 46 residents homeless. None of them were injured.
"I was in the shower when this happened this morning, and my wife came and says, 'There is something happened. Something happened.' I said, 'What?' So then she looked again through the bedroom ?? and that's when she said, 'Oh, the flames are coming up through the roof,'" said resident Julio Toro.
Police said Sponseller admitted that he was trying to kill himself. His bond has been set at $100,000.
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