Woman Charged With Arson Of Waukesha Apartment Building

WAUKESHA, WI — An arrest warrant was issued Monday for a 29-year-old woman accused of setting a fire in her mother's Waukesha apartment.

Alexandra Steinmetz faces charges of arson of a building and three counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety in Waukesha County Court, all felonies.

Fire officials responded to an apartment fire on West St. Paul Avenue near Fairview Avenue on Oct. 7. People were able to evacuate before the fire department arrived.

An officer found a rug that was burned with a towel on top of it and no obvious source of ignition, according to the criminal complaint.

The same day as the apartment fire, investigators said someone started 17 fires in the Children's Hospital parking lot in Wauwatosa. Surveillance cameras showed a person suspected of starting the fires driving a car registered to Steinmetz and her mother, the criminal complaint said.

When police spoke to her mother about the Wauwatosa fires, she showed officers "confrontational" text messages between herself and her daughter, the complaint said.

Police searched Steinmetz's car and found a strong gasoline odor. Steinmetz acknowledged to police that the car in the photos was hers, and said it was her in the photos, according to the criminal complaint.

Steinmetz later admitted to setting fires at the hospital and her mother's apartment building, telling police that she used a towel and gasoline to start the fires that she knew what she did was wrong, according to the complaint.

Online court records don't show a Milwaukee County case for Steinmetz.