Police: St. Cloud Man Suspected Of Setting Fire In Woman's Apartment
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A St. Cloud man is in custody on suspicion of intentionally starting a fire in a woman's apartment early Saturday morning.
St. Cloud Police say firefighters and officers were called to an apartment complex on the 800 block of 13th Street South just before 6 a.m.
Crews put out the fire in a second-floor apartment bedroom. All residents of the 38-unit complex were safely evacuated.
Investigators were informed that 25-year-old Almiqdam Abdullatif Aldhuwayhi gained access to the apartment of a 21-year-old woman who has a domestic abuse no-contact order against him. He is accused of then setting fire to a bedroom, while the woman was asleep in a different room.
Police later found Aldhuwayhi sleeping in a car in another part of St. Cloud. Officer say he appeared intoxicated, and was arrested without incident.
Michael Grewatz, who lives in the apartment building, said he woke up to the smell of smoke early Saturday morning.
"It smelled like burning plastic all throughout the apartment," he said. "I look outside, and it was just blazing with smoke."
After the fire was put out, Grewatz says the incident gave him pause to reflect.
"It really put it into perspective, looking at all the things we could have lost had it gotten any worse," he said.
Investigators say the apartment sustained about $30,000 in damage from the fire. No one was injured.
Aldhuwayhi is currently in the Stearns County Jail where he awaits formal charges of first-degree burglary and first-degree arson.
