Woman arrested for arson

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A Mobile woman is charged with arson after police say she started a fire outside an occupied home.

Mobile Police were called to a duplex at Jay and Eagle Drive around 10:50 Sunday night. They were summoned back two hours later for an apparent arson fire.

Police say 18-year-old Joraven Harris, who also lives in the Birdville community, pulled an air conditioning unit out of a bedroom window and used a cloth covered in an accelerant to set a fire.

Harris was booked in Mobile Metro Jail on criminal mischief and arson charges.

Mobile Police said the fire didn't cause much damage.

"But it was an intentionally set fire so she was arrested not only for criminal mischief, but for [first-degree] arson," said Ashley Rains with the Mobile Police Department.

The woman who lives in the residence had called police two hours earlier because someone broke a window in the house and her car.

"The victim reported that Ms. Harris came to basically finish an argument that they had already had," Rains said.

If there had been a significant fire at the unit, because it's a duplex, the damage would very likely have extended to the adjacent apartment. Fortunately, that was not the case.