Plainville woman intentionally lit fire that evacuated 20 apartment tenants, prosecutors say

Nobody was killed, nobody was seriously injured -- but a fire Monday morning at the Village Green apartment complex was its own tragedy, just the same.

Police blame the fire on a tenant with a known history of mental illness. Heather MacKinnon, 61-years-old, faces charges of Arson, Malicious Destruction of Property and Disorderly Conduct.

MacKinnon appeared in Wrentham District Court Tuesday for a mental health hearing. A psychologist who briefly evaluated her said she had a history of bipolar disorder with psychotic features, physical and mental trauma and substance abuse. The judge ordered MacKinnon held without bail until a bed opens up in a psychiatric hospital where she can be evaluated more thoroughly. Her next court date is December 10.

The fire, which broke out around 5 AM, set off alarms in several adjoining buildings.

“I heard this alarm go off about 5:00 in the morning and I thought it was my phone,” said Village Green tenant Rachel Robichaud. “However I realized it was the smoke alarm. So I stuck my head outside to make sure there was no fire. And I could see down here, see in the sky, this misty gray smoke and I could smell burning plastic.”

Rachel grabbed her 8-month-old daughter MacKenzie and fled her building, which was never directly involved in the fire.

“I know that all our buildings are connected,” she said. “I rushed out just to make sure in case the fire was going to spread.”

Six towns helped assist Plainville firefighters. They were able to contain the flames to one apartment -- but heavy smoke and heat forced the evacuation of 20 residents who lived in nearby units.

Steven DiGiampietro wasn’t one of them -- he lives in a building nearby.

“It’s terrifying, you know,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking in the same sense, Mental illness is a very serious situation. You don’t want to hear people doing stuff like that, putting themselves in danger, but in the same sense they’re putting everybody else in danger, too. Something could have seriously happened. The whole building could have gone up. It’s a lot of lives at stake, you know.”

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