Costa Mesa woman charged with arson

Deepa Bharath

A 44-year-old woman arrested Sunday on suspicion of arson could have

ended up blowing up her Westside apartment, officials said.

The Orange County district attorney’s office on Tuesday filed two

felony arson and attempted arson complaints against Debra Ann Kincaid

who they say deliberately ignited a fire in her apartment unit in the

800 block of Center Street.

Kincaid pleaded not guilty to both counts.

Costa Mesa Police and firefighters went to Kincaid’s home Sunday

afternoon after they got a call from a passerby that there was smoke

coming out of her window. Officials said they knocked on Kincaid’s

door and got no response, so they broke a window and entered the

apartment.

They found a metal container with paper and trash burning on a gas

stove, Deputy Dist. Atty. Patty Sanchez said.

“The gas stove was on,” she said. “We don’t know yet if she was

attempting to cause an explosion, but there was certainly a danger of

that.”

The danger was also magnified because it was an apartment complex

and there was a threat of the fire spreading to other units, Sanchez

said. Kincaid was in the apartment at the time of the incident, but

did not respond to police and firefighters, she said.

Sanchez said it is not known why Kincaid tried to set fire to her

own apartment.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 28, and a preliminary

hearing for June 2. Kincaid is being held in Orange County jail in

lieu of $50,000 bail.