PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A mother of three is trying to find a place to live and struggling to understand why her half brother may have set her rental home ablaze.
Nikki Goodblood, her partner and three children were driving to Aroostook State Park for a birthday party Sunday afternoon when her neighbor called. Their Phair Street rental home was on fire.
“I didn’t believe it and asked if it was really true,” Goodblood recalled.
The interior of the A-frame home was significantly damaged by fire, which the state fire marshal’s office believe was started by Goodblood’s 26-year-old brother Chad Hamilton, who has lived with Goodblood for six years since their mother died and their father entered a nursing home.
Two separate fires were “intentionally set” inside the building, investigator Tim Lowell of the fire marshal’s office said Tuesday.
“There is substantial damage to the structure. Although it is still standing, it will likely be a total loss,” he said.
The owner of the home lives in California and did have insurance, Lowell said, but the Goodbloods did not have renter’s insurance.
Hamilton initially told Goodblood and fire investigators that he left the stove on while he ran after the family’s therapeutic dog, a Pomeranian named Baby Girl, according to Goodblood. Investigators ended up questioning Hamilton for more than an hour, she said.
Hamilton was charged Monday with arson, a Class A felony with a maximum punishment of 30 years incarceration, according to the clerk at Presque Isle District Court. He is being held at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton on $10,000 cash bail, with an arraignment set for Dec. 23.
Hamilton previously worked at the Limestone Fire Department, first as a junior volunteer and then a paid responder, according to Goodblood. He also attended Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle from 2007 to 2009, according to his Facebook page. But he wasn’t able to continue working at the Limestone Fire Department after he moved in with his sister after their mother’s death.
In 2012, Hamilton was accused of starting three small wildfires around an ATV trail in Presque Isle. He was charged with one count of felony aggravated criminal mischief and three counts of criminal mischief. The charges were dropped in exchange for his pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and paying a $200 fine.
Goodblood is now in the midst of coping with the loss of many possessions while trying to find a new place to live and starting a new job at the Circle K in Mars Hill.
“All my mother’s stuff was there, all the kids’ stuff was there,” Goodblood said. She was able to save a stroller and her 3-year-old daughter’s new bicycle and dollhouse. The dog also was unharmed.
The Red Cross offered the family clothes and three nights in a hotel, and Goodblood has set up a GoFundMe account seeking donations of financial support or children’s clothes and school supplies. The Aroostook Saving & Loan bank also has set up a Goodblood Fire Fund to collect support.
Goodblood said her aunt is living with them to help care for her two preschool-age children and her 17-year-old son is soon starting at the online, home-based charter school Connections Academy.
“We really need a place,” said Goodblood. “It’s really hard in three days to find a place.”