SOUTHWEST GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A woman set fire to her house because she was angry at her landlord for planning to evict her and stressed out because the rest of her family wouldn't help her with the move, police said.
The fire at 41-year-old Frances Lea Shaw's home in Southwest Greensburg on Monday left nine people homeless - Shaw, her husband and five children, and two other people who lived in the home. They all escaped unharmed.
Shaw was jailed after she was unable to post $25,000 bond on arson and other charges Wednesday.
Shaw confessed to putting papers in a garbage can and set them on fire, causing about $60,000 damage to the house, police said.
Many household items - including clothes, a television and microwave oven - were already outside and covered by a heavy plastic tarp when firefighters arrived, police said. Shaw initially gave police various versions of the fire and why the items were taken out of the house beforehand, before Wednesday's alleged confession.
Shaw told police the items were taken out of the home because of electrical and water problems in the house, as well as bats. At one point she told investigators her deceased mother had told her in a dream to get everything out of the house because it was going to burn down, police said.
But police said a neighbor told them Shaw said she wanted to retaliate against her landlord, who was to have evicted her Monday. The landlord said nobody had complained about electrical problems at the house before the fire, police said.
