Woman gets probation for setting computer fire

A North Vancouver woman who set fire to a computer in her house because she was angry at her husband has been spared a criminal record.

Zahra Es Haghi Jami Poor, 60, was given a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to mischief in relation to fire, which broke out in a home office in Lynn Valley a year ago.

Es Haghi Jami Poor was originally charged with arson, but pleaded guilty in North Vancouver provincial court on Dec. 12 to the less-serious charge.

Crown counsel Arlene Loyst said police and firefighters rushed to the home on the evening of Dec. 6, 2016, after receiving a 911 call.

By the time firefighters arrived, the fire was out, but “there was a strong odour of gasoline emanating from the main floor,” Loyst said.

Es Haghi Jami Poor told emergency responders a heater wire had caused the fire. But firefighters noted a red jerry can sitting in the backyard, an open window on the first floor of the home and a lighter in the kitchen.

Carpet and blinds in the home office were smouldering and there appeared to be no electrical wires close to where the fire started.

“They believed the fire was suspicious,” Loyst said.

Es Haghi Jami Poor’s brother-in-law and a neighbour who both saw smoke coming from the home had run into the house and put out the fire with water. Both suffered from minor smoke inhalation.

Loyst said the fact people ran into the house to put out the fire and that there were tenants living downstairs was concerning. “Fires are incredibly unpredictable,” she said.

According to a psychiatric report, Es Haghi Jami Poor has no mental illness but was stressed and upset at the time.

A downstairs tenant in the house told authorities at the time that she heard Es Haghi Jami Poor and her husband having a big fight two days before the fire was set, Loyst said.

Defence lawyer Jeff Campbell said his client believed her husband was using his computer to communicate with another woman and setting the fire was part of a “severe reaction” to that.

He added there’s no indication that his client presents a risk to repeat her actions. Loyst agreed, telling the judge: “She’s not a firebug.”

Judge Alexander Wolf said that generally, courts consider deliberate setting of fires a serious crime, particularly when other people are potentially put at risk.

In this case, however, there was no intent to injure anyone or commit fraud. “She was distraught and her emotional state was unbalanced,” but she is of otherwise good character, he noted.

Wolf put Es Haghi Jami Poor on two years’ probation.