LORAIN – A Lorain woman told police she set fire to two bar bathroom trash cans because she was despondent over Michael Jackson’s death.

Amanda Jarvis, 27, was seen on surveillance footage from inside Bootlegger’s Bar on Broadway entering the bathroom twice during a short period of time before leaving the bar about 1 a.m. Sunday, police said.

Another woman who went into the bathroom after Jarvis rushed back out and told the bar owner, who was behind the bar, that there was a fire in the bathroom.

After viewing the footage, the owner left the bar to find the woman, eventually spotting her a few doors down at Boathouse II bar, and called police.

When officers arrived, they approached Jarvis at Boathouse II and asked her if she knew why they were there.

“She stated that it was because she had started a fire in the bar’s restroom,” Lorain police officer Randall Leiby II wrote in a report of the incident.

Leiby asked Jarvis why she set the fire and she said, “I felt stressed because my apartment had recently caught on fire and because of the death of Michael Jackson,” the report said.

She then apologized numerous times for setting the fire, police said.

Leiby wrote that Jarvis appeared to be heavily intoxicated while police were talking to her at the bar, and her speech was slurred.

Inside the bathroom at Bootlegger’s Bar, police found a burnt paper towel on the floor, a small trash can that was “severely melted” and a large trash can with a burn mark on it.

Jarvis was issued a summons for arson and advised of her court date, police said.

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