Woman accused of setting fire in office

Strange things were happening at Bayonet Point Oxygen back in the spring.

The power kept going out and the power company told managers that the switch was being thrown intentionally, not tripped. The phones stopped working. Items disappeared from the office. And then there was the office fire that caused $5,000 in damage to their location at 8350 Donal St.

Then suddenly the weirdness stopped.

Cindy McCallum told a Pasco fire investigator that only one thing had changed since normalcy returned: Michelle Perrino quit.

Pasco Fire Investigator Donald Campbell quickly determined that the May 12 fire was intentionally set, according to a report, and the investigation soon focused on Perrino.

A few days after the fire, which started in a filing cabinet and burned it, some papers on top and damaged the wall behind it, Perrino called in and said she wasn't feeling well because of the smoke, according to Pasco Fire Rescue officials. When confronted by the fact she seemed to be fine the day before, a report states, she hung up.

Minutes later, Perrino, 39, called again and said she quit because "she could not work under such extreme conditions," a report states.

After the fire broke out, McCallum had told employees that as a precaution nobody could go into the office alone. During the meeting, the report states, Perrino commented that the fire started in a file cabinet, but nobody had been told where the fire had been started.

As part of her regular duties as a customer service representative, according to fire rescue officials, Perrino often went into the office alone and did so the day of the fire.

When Campbell initially questioned Perrino, she said she had been a victim of several thefts in the office and denied starting the fire, a reporter states.

She reportedly told Campbell she quit to take a job at a doctor's office. A day after being questioned in person, Perrino refused to answer any other questions, simply saying she was done with Bayonet Point Oxygen.

In September, Campbell interviewed Perrino's former roommate Lance Hunsher, who told him on several occasions that Perrino told him that she would go outside of her work and flip off the power so she could go home early with pay.

According to the arrest affidavit, Hunsher also said Perrino said she would tamper with the telephones so no calls could be received and that she started a small fire in the office so she could once again be sent home early with pay.

Campbell tried to interview Perrino again Sept. 16 but she wasn't home, so he left a business card. The following day, according to the affidavit, she sent him an e-mail, stating Hunsher was lying because he was retaliating against her for having him thrown out of his home.

That same day, records show, she sought and got a restraining order against Hunsher, saying he threatened her family with a gun and set fire to her grass. According to Campbell's report, this was Perrino's attempt to discredit her former roommate's stories about her.

A report was never filed with authorities about the threats against Perrino, her affidavit states, and there was no evidence the grass outside her home was burned.

She was arrested Wednesday afternoon at her home, 8806 Roseanne Blvd., New Port Richey. She was being held at the Land O' Lakes Jail today on a charge of first-degree arson. Bail was set at $150,000.