Camillus woman charged after intentionally setting fire that destroyed home

A mental health check at a Terrace Way home in Camillus turned into an arson scene Friday morning, leaving the house destroyed, four people without a place to live and two cats rescued from the flames.

Police said officers were first sent to 101 Terrace Way for a mental health and status check when they found the home on fire. The blaze drew a response from the Fairmount Fire Department and Camillus police in the Orchard Village neighborhood, and local television reporting said firefighters got the fire under control in about 30 minutes. By the time the smoke cleared, the house had been deemed uninhabitable.

Investigators identified the suspect as Jill Huner, 44, and charged her with arson in the third degree. Under New York Penal Law, that charge applies when a person intentionally damages a building by starting a fire, and it is classified as a class C felony.

Police have not publicly released a motive. The sequence of events raises the same painful questions that surround many house fires tied to crisis calls: whether warning signs were visible before the flames, what help was available in the moment, and how quickly a call meant to check on one person can ripple across an entire home. In this case, the impact spread immediately to the other people living there, who lost their residence in a matter of minutes, along with the pets inside.

The fire also pulled emergency resources into one Camillus block on a Friday morning, disrupting a neighborhood that now has to absorb the loss of a home at 101 Terrace Way. For the people who lived there, the damage was not limited to the building itself. It meant displacement, uncertainty and the added burden of finding temporary housing after the fire had already forced them out.