56-year-old charged with arson after apartment fire on west side

Video with this story is from the Wayne Township Fire Department.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis woman faces six counts of arson in connection with a March fire at an apartment complex on the city’s west side, authorities and court records say.

Shelly Barker, 56, appeared in court Monday on the charges. Her bond was set at $190,000 surety and $1,000 cash, online court records show. Barker remained in jail on Wednesday afternoon, says Allison Marshall, public information officer for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

The fire departments of Wayne Township, Speedway and Indianapolis responded to an apartment fire with entrapment in the early evening of March 17 in the 6000 block of Beachview Drive in The Boardwalk at Westlake apartments. That’s southeast of the I-465 interchange for West 10th Street.

A Wayne Township Fire Department news release issued Wednesday says firefighters arrived to find flames showing from the first and second floors of the apartment building. Some residents had jumped from the second floor to the sidewalk due to smoke and fire conditions in the hallways before firefighters arrived.

Capt. Eric Banister, a spokesman with the Wayne Township department, told News 8 by phone that three adults who’d jumped from the second floor were taken to a hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening.

Wayne Township Fire Department’s arson division, the Indiana State Fire Marshalls arson unit, and arson detectives from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department arrested Barker.

One of the six felony counts was related to a vehicle fire earlier the same day at the apartment complex.

Banister said an incendiary device was used to start the fires, but additional details were not immediately available.