ALFRED — An 18-year-old indicted on arson and murder charges told police that two men killed in a fire were unintended “collateral damage” in his attempt to scare an ex-girlfriend, according to an affidavit unsealed Friday.
Police said Dylan Collins, 18, told them before his arrest in November that a 16-year-old girl who lived in the apartment building in Biddeford had broken up with him several months prior to the Sept. 18 fire. Firefighters rescued the girl and her parents.
The details became available in an affidavit unsealed by Justice Paul Fritzsche at Collins’ arraignment at York County Superior Court.
Collins pleaded not guilty to the charges at the hearing. He spoke briefly, answering yes and no questions.
The affidavit said Collins bought a lighter and rubbing alcohol that he used to start the blaze that trapped two men in their third-floor apartment. Twenty-three-year-old Michael Moore died of smoke inhalation in the fire and Moore’s friend, 21-year-old James Ford, died a month later from complications of smoke inhalation.
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