Woman Arrested After Arson Fire Leaves 2 Hurt, 13 Displaced in Landover Hills

The suspect was arrested and charged with multiple counts of arson, malicious burning and reckless endangerment. 

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Residents of a Maryland apartment complex were shaken from their slumber Sunday night and awakened to a nightmare. 

Prince George’s County fire crews responded to a 4-story garden apartment building in the 4000 block of Warner Avenue in the Landover Hills area when the structure went up in smoke. 

“I was sleeping with my family, and then, the alarm goes off,” neighbor Juan Rosales said.

As flames shot out of the front of the building, some residents had to be rescued from their balconies. 

Fire officials said two people were hospitalized with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries. Thirteen people were displaced.

Investigators say the blaze started on the bottom two floors, and that it was a case of arson. That detail is particularly unsettling considering the size of the complex, intensity of the flames and the lives put in peril deliberately.

“We saw the window with the fire… so I did tell my neighbors to come out, because there was a fire,” Rosales said. 

The fire was put out quickly, but not before it caused more than $100,000 in damage.

The suspected arsonist, described only as a woman, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of arson, malicious burning and reckless endangerment. 

It was just last August when another fire that began at 4 a.m. in the same Landover Hills complex displaced more than a dozen people.

That fire was also determined to be arson. Fortunately, everyone escaped - though the property loss was substantial. 

That incident remains under investigation. 

It’s not known if there is a connection between the two fires. Despite the quick arrest of a suspect in Sunday's fire, it too is part of an open investigation.

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