LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)– A Lancaster County woman was charged with arson and cruelty to animals after a house fire at a residence in Ephrata last Oct. 9, according to the Ephrata Police Department.

Crews responded to a home on East Chestnut Street and Grape Alley for a fire at 5:05 a.m. for a reported fire. The second floor was engulfed in flames, but crews extinguished the blaze around 6:40.

The Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshall said the investigation revealed a fire was intentionally set in a bathtub on the second floor of the building.

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Police said Leslie Truitt, 70, of Ephrata, admitted to taking the belongings of a former resident and setting them on fire in the second-floor bathtub. Truitt was unable to evacuate the building and had to be removed by a neighbor who sustained burns in the process.

The condition and number of animals in the house at the time of the fire is unknown.

Truitt was taken to the hospital and will be arraigned at a later time.

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