Fort Dodge woman charged with arson
Arrested as suspect in Sunday afternoon blaze
A woman was arrested Monday and charged with torching a Fort Dodge apartment Sunday afternoon, police reported.
Megan S. Freeman, 34, of Fort Dodge, was arrested and charged with first-degree arson, third-degree arson and first-degree harassment, according to Fort Dodge police. She was taken into custody at about 2 p.m. Monday, roughly 24 hours after the fire at 211 N. 12th St. was reported.
The fire was reported at 1:41 p.m Sunday. When firefighters arrived, they found flames coming out of two second-story windows in the front of the building, a man on the roof in the rear of the building and two people in a first-floor apartment.
The man on the roof was in a second-floor apartment in the rear of the building when the fire ignited. He went out a window onto a roof that covers a portion of the first floor that extends out from the rear of the house. Firefighters quickly put up a ladder so that he could climb down. They also evacuated the people from the first-floor apartment.
The blaze was contained to a second-floor apartment in the front of the building. That apartment sustained serious fire damage, while the rest of the second floor sustained heat and smoke damage.
No one was injured.
The cause of the fire appeared to be suspicious. Detectives processed the scene and spoke to witnesses. As a result, Freeman was identified as a suspect.
She was booked into the Webster County Jail and held on $29,000 cash-only bond, according to police.