DEWITT -- DeWitt Police have made an arrest in connection with the Springfield Gardens Apartment complex fire. Markina Mason has been charged with second degree arson and second degree criminal mischief. She is being held at the Justice Center on $50,000 bond.
Investigators say Mason was the only one in the apartment at the time of the fire. They say she was able to get out of the building with the other tenants. According to police another fire happened inside the same apartment on December 21st of last year. They say Mason was the only person in the apartment on that occasion also.
The fire is still under investigation by the DeWitt Police, East Syracuse Fire Departments and the District Attorney’s Office.
Three people were injured in a fire Sunday morning at the Springfield Gardens Apartments on Canton Drive in DeWitt. The fire was called in at about 8:45 by an officer conducting a property check at the apartment complex.
Three DeWitt Police Officers rescued one tenant from the burning building by pulling an SUV up to the building and pulling the tenant out through a window. That person and another from the apartment where the fire is beleived to have started were taken to the hospital with non life threatening injuries. DeWitt Police Officer L. Andrews was also taken to the hospital and was treated and released for smoke inhalation.
One apartment appears burned, while eleven others are damaged. The Red Cross is assisting the tenants and Le Moyne College has opened its athletic center to shelter displaced residents from the bitter cold. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
