Man charged with arson in Presque Isle house fire
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A mother of three is trying to find a place to live and struggling to understand why her adopted brother allegedly 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 A-frame home suffered significant internal damage from a fire that the Maine 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.
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. Goodblood also said the investigators found nail polish remover in one of the rooms. Tim Lowell of the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office handled the case but did not respond to requests for comment.
Investigators ended up questioning Hamilton for more than an hour, according to Goodblood, and later charged him with arson, a Class A felony with a maximum punishment of 30 years incarceration. He’s currently being held at the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton, on $10,000 cash bail, with an arraignment set for December 23.
Hamilton was adopted at the age of 8, after suffering abuse in his biological family, and struggled growing up, Goodblood said. He has a longstanding interest in fire, and previously worked at the Limestone Fire Department, first as a junior volunteer and then a paid responder, according to Goodblood.
“I almost feel that he gets an adrenaline rush when he sees the fire truck come. He once lit the lawnmower on fire,” she said.
Hamilton attended Northern Maine Community College from 2007-09, according to his Facebook page, but wasn’t able to continue working at the Limestone Fire Department after he moved in with his sister following 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 pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and paying a $200 fine.
Goodblood is now in the midst of coping with the loss of many of their 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 was safe.
The Red Cross offered the family clothes and three nights in a hotel. Goodblood has also set up a GoFundMe account seeking donations of financial support or children’s clothes and school supplies. The Aroostook Saving & Loan bank has also set up the Goodblood Fire Fund to collect support.
“We really need a place,” said Goodblood. Her aunt is also living with them to help care for her two pre-school-aged kids and her 17-year-old son is soon starting at the online, home-based charter school Connections Academy. “It’s really hard in three days to find a place.”
