Can you get arrested for burning down your own house?
Disclaimer: I'm not going to burn down my house or anyone else's. I'm a writer and I need to know if it makes sense for my character to be imprisoned after committing arson on his own property. Arson is a felony, but what about self-arson, for lack of a better word? I know insurance fraud is illegal, but this scenario is specifically related to the burning, not the insurance fallout.
Answers ( 2 )
You can get arrested for anything if you try hard enough. If your character is proud of their accomplishment, and brags about it to the fire department, they'd likely be booked for an amorphous charge like public endangerment. If they don't brag about it, but let an investigation play out, they could get nabbed on something like obstruction of justice or filing a false police report (depending on local statutes).
The Talking Heads had a song, "Burning Down the House", but I don't remember what it was about.
If your house is next to other houses, or to a forest that would be in danger of catching fire, it would be (criminally?) irresponsible to burn it down, especially during fire-ban season. Also your neighbours would be sure to complain about the smoke, some of which would probably be toxic. And of course your contribution to carbon emissions and thus to global climate change would be a problem. You might well get sued, but I doubt you'd be arrested unless your neighbours' houses (or the forest) actually do catch fire and burn, or someone goes to the hospital from smoke inhalation. Besides, you could always plead insanity.