SHAMOKIN - A first-floor tenant of the Sunbury Street apartment building heavily damaged by fire May 10 was charged Friday with lying to authorities.
Even Sabrina R. Hummel's mother wouldn't corroborate her daughter's story, and her brother had an alibi when she tried to blame him for leaving grease unattended on a stove, police said.
Hummel, 27, who lived at 301 E. Sunbury St., Apt. 1, before the blaze, was charged with giving false reports incriminating another and unsworn falsification to authorities, both second-degree misdemeanors, and disorderly conduct, a third-degree misdemeanor, by Shamokin City Police Patrolman Raymond Siko II. She faces a maximum of two years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each of the second-degree misdemeanors, and a maximum 90 days in jail and a $5,000 fine on the third-degree charge.
The three-alarm fire started in the kitchen of Hummel's apartment at about 3 a.m. and left 10 people homeless, including Hummel and her two children, ages 3 and 23 months.
The fire was ruled accidental and arson is not among the charges.
Piecing times together
In court documents, Siko, acting as the city's fire investigation officer, said he located Hummel at 7:30 a.m. May 10 at the residence of a friend, Jackie Rupert, at 804 N. Washington St., Apt. 1, not far from her home. Hummel was dressed in a nightgown and wore no shoes; she told police that was all she had on when she left her home.
Hummel said she left her residence with her two children at 11:30 p.m. May 9 to visit Rupert. They left her home at 12:30 a.m. to go to Hummel's mother's residence, 921 N. Washington St., to make lunch for her children and watch a movie.
She told police she left her mother's residence sometime between 2:30 and 3:15 a.m. and noticed smoke coming from her apartment. She said she walked up onto the front porch and could see the kitchen on fire and a blanket over the stove.
She told police she ran back to her friend's house and banged on the door, but could not make any contact. She then ran up to the third floor of her apartment building to contact another friend, but was unable to do so. When she came back outside, police and the fire department were arriving, Hummel told police.
Asked why she didn't call 911 on her cell phone, Hummel said it was inside the apartment. Asked if she had been cooking or had any candles burning, Hummel said no. She told police she often left her apartment door unlocked, so she didn't know if anyone had entered while she was gone.
Siko questioned Rupert, who told police Hummel was at her home the evening of May 9, but she could not say when Hummel arrived or left because she had fallen asleep while Hummel was there. She would later tell police that Hummel was there without her children.
In subsequent interviews after the fire, police asked Hummel if it is normal for her children to be awake in the middle of the night and for her to be walking around the neighborhood in only a nightgown with no shoes. Hummel replied, "Yeah, why?" police said.
One of her sons wore no shirt or shoes when police interviewed Hummel at 7:30 a.m. at Rupert's house. Hummel said he lost them at her mother's house.
Siko at one point took Hummel back to the apartment building, where he asked her what she saw when she discovered the fire. Hummel told police she looked through the window, which was not broken, and saw the fire on the floor by the stove and saw it start burning the top of a table. She told police she saw everything on the table burn.
Police noted in their affidavit that the table in question did not receive any fire damage.
Mother questioned
Suspicious of Hummel's story, police called in a state police fire marshal to investigate.
Siko also questioned Hummel's mother, who told police her daughter was not at her residence before the fire. She said her home was locked and that Hummel does not have a key.
Hummel was called to the police station at 10 a.m. May 10 and gave police a written statement, after which police informed her the story did not match up with information obtained in their investigation. Police said they would give her an opportunity to tell the truth. She then said her brother, Brandon Lopez, was at her apartment earlier in the evening, cooking on the stove, which he did not turn off when he left.
Hummel said she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when she later made a sandwich. She told police she fell asleep on the couch, waking to a burning smell and smoke in the home. She said she saw a pan of discarded grease burning in the kitchen, and when she removed the pan, flames shot up. She threw a coat and then a comforter on the fire, but it continued to burn, she told police.
Siko asked Hummel why she didn't immediately get her children, leave the home and call for help. Hummel said she didn't know, adding she took her children to Rupert's house to report the blaze after attempting to extinguish the flames.
She had no answer when asked why she didn't warn her neighbors. She also had no answer when asked why she lied to officers during the first interview.
Police asked Hummel if she lied because she was scared. She didn't answer.
Brother's reply
Lopez told police he was not at his sister's house before the fire. He said Hummel asked him to babysit so she could go out, but he refused because she hadn't paid him for the last time he watched Hummel's children.
Lopez said he was with friends at the time of the fire, which was confirmed by police. Lopez was alerted to the blaze by his girlfriend.
Police said Hummel is not yet in custody. The caption of a photo of Hummel posted Tuesday on the Facebook wall of Larry Rose, of Trevorton, identified as Hummel's fiance, urges her "to come home, time to stop running wild and free, the family is torn apart without you here and not known or hearing from you."