Kamloops woman charged with arson again

A Kamloops woman, who was caught setting a series of small wildland fires, is charged with arson again, this time for sparking a blaze at her downtown home.

Angela Elise Cornish, born in 1980, is facing multiple criminal charges including one for arson.

On June 15, she was released on bail, accused of setting her house on fire in November.

She was sentenced more than two years ago after setting multiple fires near Kamloops. Police tracked her activities in the spring of 2022 after her truck was seen leaving the scene of fires in the Westwold area.

Cornish pleaded guilty to four counts of arson after investigators caught her heading out to the Lac le Jeune and Connolly Lake areas, where BC Wildfire Service would spend $15,000 dousing the fires she set.

A provincial court judge heard Cornish had mental health issues and the fires weren’t meant to be large or damage property. Instead, they were “for personal healing and growth,” her lawyer Lana Walker had told the court.

The new charges stem from a call to a home on the 700 block of Dominion Street, where police were alerted to the fire and a woman in a mental health crisis, according to a Kamloops RCMP news release last November.

Police said the woman made her way to the neighbourhood school, which was placed on a hold and secure. The woman was arrested shortly after, while firefighters dealt with the fire.

Along with the arson charge, Cornish is facing three counts of assault.