Mavis Williams, 43, was detained by authorities, in the early hours of Sunday on the suspicion of starting a fire in the garages of an El Cajon apartment complex.
Just before 1:30 p.m., the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department got a tip and spotted Williams on the 700 block of E. Bradley Avenue.
She is currently being imprisoned at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility on charges of setting the fire deliberately.
Authorities were actively investigating a fire that broke out just before 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 11, in the 400 block of E. Bradley Avenue in El Cajon’s unincorporated region. Multiple complaints were received by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department reporting a fire at an apartment complex near the spot.
Authorities claimed that deputies from the Lakeside Sheriff’s Substation, as well as firefighters from the Heartland, San Miguel, and Lakeside Fire Departments, reacted quickly. When they arrived, they saw a row of 14 detached garages on the property engulfed in flames. For more than an hour, firefighters worked nonstop to put out the fire.
Following the fire’s extinguishment, investigators from the Sheriff’s Bomb/Arson Unit were dispatched to examine its source and origin. According to officials, the research led to the identification of the precise garage where the fire started.
Mavis Williams (DOB 05/30/1980) was identified as the person responsible for igniting the fire by detectives on Friday, January 12. Further investigation revealed that Williams, along with several other homeless people, had been living in the garage where the fire started, according to investigators. Officers returned to the scene but were unable to locate Williams.
Williams was declared wanted for arrest under California Penal Code Section 452 (b), which deals with setting a fire in an inhabited structure unlawfully or carelessly. She was described as 5’6″ tall, with brown hair and brown eyes.