TAYLORSVILLE, Utah, Sept. 21, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — A Taylorsville woman has been arrested after allegedly setting fire to her own apartment — again.
A probable cause statement from the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake County said Crystal Bustamante, 39, is facing a charge of aggravated arson, a first-degree felony.
On Sept. 13, a fire was reported by the tenant of the upstairs portion of a duplex located in the area of 3400 W. 4700 South in Taylorsville, the statement said.
“The upstairs tenant had the smoke detectors activate in his unit and knew that they were connected to the smoke detectors in the lower unit of the duplex,” the statement said.
“The Unified Fire Authority responded to the scene and found fire in the basement unit of the duplex and a female, Crystal Bustamante, trapped in the basement.”
The firefighters pulled Bustamante from the basement window and then extinguished three fires in the unit. Unified Police Department then detained Bustamante.
“Fire crews found three areas of fire in the basement unit,” the statement said. “One was in the bedroom where it appeared that window coverings had been ignited, one was on the kitchen stove which was turned on and combustible materials had been placed on top of the burner. The third location was on the east facing window in the living room where it appeared that window coverings had been ignited and the window covering had caught the couch on fire as well.”
Bustamante also allegedly ignited fires in her duplex unit in July of this year, the statement said. After questioning the suspect, investigators believe “that three individual fires were ignited intentionally by Crystal Bustamante in the basement unit endangering the lives of the occupants and damaging the lower unit.”
Bustamante was transported to Salt Lake County Jail with her bail set at $20,010.
