FAYETTE – An 18-year-old Fayette woman is being held on $100,000 cash bail or $500,000 surety at an Augusta jail for allegedly setting fire to her family’s house early Sunday while the her parents and four siblings slept.

The family escaped the fire but the girl’s mother suffered “minor burns” on her feet.

Alyssa Jensen is accused of pouring an “ignitable” liquid inside the family’s single-story wood-framed home on Palmer Hill Road in Fayette early Sunday, state Fire Marshal’s investigator Kenneth Grimes said.

Grimes arrested Jensen Monday night in Oakland. Jensen, who had been staying in a travel trailer outside the family home, allegedly disappeared from the fire scene a couple hours after the fire, Grimes said, prior to state investigators arrival on the scene Sunday.

“Our investigation led us to (Alyssa) based upon statements of people close to the fire scene,” Grimes said. He has filed an affidavit in court.

Jensen is being held at Kennebec County Jail and will appear Wednesday for an arraignment in Augusta District Court.

Arson carries a punishment of up to 40 years in prison.

The teenager’s parents, Stuart and Paula Jensen and four siblings ranging in age from 14 to 24 were awakened by the fire and smoke detectors and escaped through windows and a side door, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland stated in a release.

One of the family members ran to a neighbor’s house to call the Fire Department. Paula Jensen’s burns occurred while she was escaping the fire but she didn’t require immediate medical treatment, he said. No one else was injured.

When firefighters arrived on the scene of the blaze reported at 2:42 a.m., the house was engulfed in flames and all that was left standing was two walls, according to McCausland.

Debris from the fire is being analyzed at the State Police Crime Laboratory in Augusta.

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