PALMYRA — A Palmyra man has been arrested after he intentionally set fires over the weekend at two houses on Main Street in Palmyra, according to police.
Aaron Chadbourn, 54, was arraigned Thursday and is hospitalized while in the custody of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, according to Shannon Moss, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Emergency crews and the Office of State Fire Marshal responded at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday to a residential fire at 409 Main St.
“Investigators determined that the fire started on the outside of the building which was occupied by two adults and three children,” Moss wrote in a statement released Thursday to the news media. “The family was able to make it out safely with no injuries.”
A second fire was reported shortly afterward at 500 Main St., according to Moss. She said no one was home at the time, adding that part of the building had been renovated and was being used as living space.
On Monday, the day after the fires, Chadbourn was arrested and charged with arson. He was placed under house arrest, but he violated his bail conditions Wednesday, prompting police to take him into custody, Moss said.
Moss did not say why Chadbourn was hospitalized or why officials waited four days to release information on the arsons.
No motive was given for why Chadbourn allegedly started the fires or why the two houses were targeted.
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