Victoria R. Lea, 20, of Iowa City, is accused of first-degree arson in connection with the incident that happened at 229 S. Dubuque St. The downtown building has restaurants on the ground level and 48 apartments on remaining four floors.
Police say Lea called 911 and reported smoke inside an apartment she was watching but refused to provide more information to dispatchers before hanging up. The call came within a minute of the building’s fire alarms going off, police records show.
Firefighters found smoke coming from a unit, and had to force entry into the unit because the door had been deadbolted. A chair and table had been moved to barricade the door, investigators said. Firefighters found a couch had been lit on fire and found lighter fluid and a lighter next to the couch.
Firefighters extinguished the fire and found Lea inside the apartment, the criminal complaint states.
Investigators determined the tenant who lived at the unit was out of state when the fire broke out. The tenant told investigators Lea had a key to the apartment and had made suicidal statements and was upset he would not immediately return to Iowa City when she called him several hours before the fire, the criminal complaint states.
Lea remains in custody in the Johnson County Jail. First-degree arson is a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison upon conviction.
Arson charge filed in Iowa City apartment fire
Police say a woman intentionally lit a couch on fire around 1:20 a.m. Tuesday inside 48-unit apartment building in downtown Iowa City.
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