By SABRINA SIMMS

 

VIDALIA — A Vidalia woman faces a charge of aggravated arson after authorities say she set a fire that damaged her ex-boyfriend’s mobile home Sunday afternoon.

Witnesses told investigators Shannon Juneau, 40, had threatened to set her ex-boyfriend’s mobile home on fire, and public affairs director for the Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Office, Ashley Rodrigue, said Juneau told investigators she had set leaves on fire under the trailer two days prior to the Sunday fire but said she had gotten scared and put the fire out before it spread.

Juneau, investigators said, denied having started the Sunday fire, but Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal officials placed her under arrest.

Rodrigue, said no one was injured during the Sunday afternoon blaze on B.J. Road in Vidalia.

“The ex-boyfriend’s current girlfriend was in the home and smelled the smoke,” Rodrigue said. “She ignored the smell when she couldn’t find anything. A friend later told her the trailer was on fire and the two of them extinguished the fire with a hose and called 911.”

Rodrigue said the Concordia Parish Fire Department arrived on scene at 4:50 p.m. Sunday and later contacted the state fire marshal to assist in the investigation of the fire’s origin.

Rodrigue said investigators discovered limited damage to insulation and other combustibles underneath the trailer and determined the origin to be cloth material underneath the house that was partially burned and smelled like gasoline.

State fire marshal officials arrested Juneau at 151 B.J. Road on a charge of aggravated arson and detained her in the Concordia Parish Jail with a bond of $25,000.

Suspicious fire or explosion-related activity can be reported anonymously to the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal through its arson hotline at 1-866-946-1097.