Victim says sense of security shattered

If the arson suspect arrested Thursday is charged with starting Karen Frost's car on fire, too, she might feel safe again.

Maybe.

Frost has had trouble sleeping since last week, when an apparent arsonist set fire to the garage her car was in at 1625 E. Fourth St. Her confidence has been shattered. When she hears sirens at night she freezes, listening until they fade away into the distance.

"It's so nerve-wracking," she says.

She'll feel better if someone is charged in the fires that have plagued Duluth's East Hillside in recent months. But she'll also worry. Is it someone from the neighborhood? Where in the neighborhood? Do police have enough evidence?

Frost's life has been rocked by the fire that she discovered simply because leg cramps had kept her awake. Sitting on the edge of her bed at 5 a.m. Jan. 2, she noticed a light in the duplex's detached garage. It was a strange sight at that hour. She wondered if her landlord was out there.

Then she noticed the orange blaze. It was fire, not a turned-on light. Barefoot and in her pajamas, she ran out, grabbing her cell phone and calling 911 on the way. Nearing the garage, she saw the side door was wide open; usually the garage was locked tight.

"I heard things falling from the garage wall," she recalls. "I heard roaring, things popping. I could see flames and huge black smoke coming out."

Her gut feeling was to get out of there, but she was afraid her landlord was inside. She roused his son on the duplex's lower level and while he moved his rental car away from the garage, she made her way through the dark apartment and found his parents safe inside.

Firefighters arrived and put out the fire, but not before it destroyed the garage and her 1997 Pontiac Grand Am parked inside. Firefighters were called back a few hours later when embers re-ignited.

At first, Frost wasn't mad, figuring whoever is responsible has a problem.

"Now I'm more mad because of the stress and money and having to buy another car," said Frost, who had car insurance.

But the idea of home being a safe haven has been lost for Frost as she lives with the lingering smell of smoke and the charred remains.

"You feel violated," she said. "You should feel safe in your home, and that was taken away,"