A Summerville couple speaks out about a terrifying close call when their front porch went up in flames.
We were at the court date for the man accused of trying to kill them.
Police say the man, who does know the couple, tried to set their house on fire in the middle of the night.
“My nephews came over and spent the night. We were playing, doing YouTube videos and stuff like that. We went to bed around midnight,” says fire victim Kayla Little.
A quiet evening, until suddenly Kayla and her husband Jason were up again, thanks to a 15-year-old boy playing on his phone.
“Our nephew hollered up, woke us up. We came downstairs and I told Kayla to get the kids get out of the house and I got a fire extinguisher and started fighting the fire,” says fire victim Jason Little.
Police say the fire burning around 1 a.m. on Saturday. Feb. 20, on their front porch was set by this man, James Dubrock, 32, Clarion.
Jason Little’s ex is now married to Dubrock, and both Jason and Mrs. Dubrock had a child custody court hearing in Clarion that Friday morning.
“They had a conciliation hearing and they wanted James to be in the room and he wasn’t permitted to be in there, it was for the parties, and he wouldn’t leave, so he was escorted out by a deputy sheriff,” says Kayla.
Later at the fire, police say they could smell gasoline, and about an hour later, found Dubrock, who’d crashed on nearby Water Street in Summerville.
The complaint says firefighters went to a second crash site less than a mile away on Route 949 where footprints led them to a plastic gas can.
Surveillance video at the home also caught a man with a gas can, the complaint said.
Police say Dubrock’s blood alcohol content was at .114 and he was flown to Altoona, where a hospital policeman confirmed the smell of gasoline on his clothes.
He’s now facing six attempted murder charges.
The Littles say three kids were right near that door that burned.
“My 5-year-old boy, my 13-year-old nephew, and my 15-year-old nephew. They were all hanging out downstairs, on the couch,” says Jason Little.
Dubrock waived his preliminary hearing on Thursday and has a $450,000 total bond in his arson and attempted murder cases.
