A former resident of a Waterville group home for people with mental illness who has been linked to a pair of earlier fires was released on bail Wednesday after a court appearance on charges that she set fire to her bedroom April 3 at the home.

Jean M. Rowe, 60, is charged with two counts of class A arson for allegedly intending to destroy property and recklessly endanger other residents in April at a Motivational Services group home on Pleasant Street in Waterville.

Residents of the group home are not allowed to smoke in the building but are allowed to have smoking material, matches and cigarette lighters. Rowe allegedly used a cigarette lighter to start the fire.

Rowe lives in a group home in Somerset County, where she was being monitored before her arrest Tuesday on a warrant by Skowhegan police following an indictment on the two counts of arson. Rowe had an initial court appearance Wednesday via video from the Kennebec County jail in Augusta.

After her court appearance Wednesday, at which she did not enter a plea, Rowe was released on $2,000 unsecured bail back to the group home, where she cannot leave without supervision, with a next scheduled court date of July 18. Assistant District Attorney David Spencer sought the unsecured bail with supervision through the Maine Pretrial Services contract. The judge also ordered a competence evaluation for her. Elizabeth Gray represented Rowe on Wednesday but did not return a call for comment.

An affidavit and request for arrest, filed with the court by investigator Kenneth MacMaster, of the Office of State Fire Marshal, says the April 3 Waterville fire started in Rowe’s bedroom.

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The affidavit also notes that Rowe suffers from mental health problems and said she set a fire at group home in Vassalboro and might have been involved in another in Saco in 2009, but was never charged. A staff member at the Waterville residence later told investigators that if they had known of Rowe’s possible prior behavior, she would not have been placed there.

According to MacMaster’s affidavit, the April 3 fire originated on the wall of Rowe’s bedroom. MacMaster said pictures and drawings on the wall were set on fire and dropped onto other combustible material in the room, forcing evacuation of the group home. The papers allegedly were ignited by Rowe using a Bic cigarette lighter.

In her statements to investigators immediately after the fire, Rowe reportedly said she smokes cigarettes, but could not remember what happened to cause the fire. She then told investigators that she had used the cigarette lighter to set her mattress and pillow ablaze.

MacMaster notes in the affidavit that there are inconsistencies in the report of the origin and cause of the fire, which was extinguished mostly by the home’s sprinkler system as Waterville fire units arrived on scene.

The home had six residents and two staff member on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, a mental health support specialist told investigators. At the time, Rowe was her own guardian and had been suicidal in the past.

Rowe reportedly left the home five weeks before the April 3 incident and was found at a local store drinking a beer, after which she was hospitalized for mental health problems for about a month. When she returned to the Pleasant Street group home, she reportedly was quiet, but the staff watched her closely.

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After the fire, Rowe allegedly told investigators that she had set blaze because she was trying to hurt herself, and no one else, according to the affidavit. Rowe also said she previously had lit a fire in Vassalboro but couldn’t remember when that was. She said she thought the Vassalboro fire occurred at The Gables, which, MacMaster notes, was a residential care facility for people with mental illness that closed in 2015.

When asked what it felt like to set fires, Rowe reportedly said that it makes her feel warm, MacMaster said in the court document. Rowe was scheduled to take her medication that morning, but she had not done so when the smoke alarms in the building sounded.

Rowe’s name also appears on a report about a structure fire July 17, 2009, in Saco. The fire, on property operated by Volunteers of America, caused an estimated $350,000 worth of damage.

Investigators of that fire found that Rowe was responsible, according to MacMaster’s affidavit. Yet a prosecution report forwarded to the York County District Attorney’s Office does not indicate a case resolution, MacMaster wrote, and did not find “any fire related charges” in Rowe’s criminal record.

At the conclusion of the interviews in April after the Waterville fire, Rowe was taken by ambulance to MaineGeneral Medical Center for a mental health evaluation.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow


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