Firefighters watched helplessly Wednesday as black smoke billowed over a treeline from a nearby apartment complex.
They had arrived at 5:15 p.m. to fight a fire in Apartment F at Legacy Crossing Apartments at 3914 Hahn’s Lane, but police told them to wait on a nearby street so they could arrest the woman accused of setting the fire who witnesses said was also firing a gun.
For 13 minutes the fire burned and firefighters were unable to reach it.
They called for more firefighters to respond.
“Those 13 minutes hurt us,” said Dwayne Church, Greensboro Fire Department spokesman. “But GPD did a great job making it just 13 minutes.”
Police arrested 21-year-old Aleen Smith, a Greensboro resident, and charged her with breaking and entering, larceny, possession of a weapon of mass destruction, discharging a firearm within the city limits, and arson.