A tenant of a DeWitt apartment complex was charged with arson after being injured in an early morning fire that sent a police officer and another resident to the hospital, town police said.

The occupant of the Springfield Garden apartment where the fire started, Markina L. Mason, 34, of Apartment 109B, Building 21, was charged with felony arson and criminal mischief, said DeWitt Police Chief Eugene Conway.

Police are also investigating a Dec. 21 fire at Mason's apartment, Conway said.

Mason was taken to the hospital with an injury not considered life threatening. After her release, she was questioned at the DeWitt police station and sent to the Onondaga County Justice Center jail with bail set at $50,000, police said.

Mason was the only occupant of the apartment at the time of each fire, Conway said. No one was injured in the first fire.

In both cases, Mason said the fires started while she was cooking something on the stove, Conway said. In the first fire, she claimed the fire ignited some curtains, but fire investigators felt the curtains were too far away to make that plausible, Conway said.

In the second fire, investigators believe the fire started in the bedroom, not the kitchen, Conway said.

It's too early to say why Mason may have wanted to burn down her apartment, the chief said.

Today's fire remains under investigation, but no further arrests are expected, Conway said.

A DeWitt police officer, Chase Bilodeau, first noticed flames coming from the back of Mason's apartment, 109B in Building 21, while conducting a property check at the complex, Conway said.

Bilodeau contacted the Onondaga County 911 Center.

A second DeWitt police officer, Randy Andrews, suffered smoke inhalation while rescuing someone out of a burning third-floor apartment, police said. Andrews was treated at University Hospital in Syracuse and released.

Officer Randy Andrews was treated at University Hospital in Syracuse and released.

Andrews and two other DeWitt police officers, Frank Vito and Michael Kurgan, helped a person climb out a window from Apartment 109C, located above the apartment where the fire started, Conway said.

They pulled a police department SUV next to the building and climbed on top of it to help the occupant out of the window, Conway said. The occupant, whose name was not disclosed by police, was treated at a local hospital and released.

Officials at the scene said 12 apartment units were destroyed in the blaze that began around 8:45 a.m. on Caton Drive in DeWitt.

East Syracuse, DeWitt, Minoa and Fayetteville fire departments responded to the scene. Syracuse police, East Syracuse police and the Onondaga County sheriff's deputies also assisted at the scene.