Hospital Worker Gets 5-Year Term for Starting Fire

A former Camarillo State Hospital employee has been sentenced to five years in prison for setting a fire that caused an estimated $1.3 million in damages to a dormitory at the hospital last December.

The employee, Susan Ann Bouchard, 35, a psychiatric technician, was found guilty of one count of arson by a Ventura Superior Court jury July 30 as the result of a fire that was set in a two-story employee dormitory where she lived, according to court records.

Bouchard, who had worked at the state hospital since December, 1985, told officers that she set fire to her bed after an all-night drinking bout because “I just wanted to die,” court records said. She had a history of depression and other emotional problems, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson said.

There were 14 other employees in the building when the fire broke out early Dec. 23, court records said. One man injured his ankle jumping from a second-story window to escape the fire, records said.

Bouchard, a former Ventura resident, had been living in the employee dormitory since early December 1986, court records said.

Bouchard was arrested after she was found wandering on the hospital grounds smelling of smoke and alcohol, court records said. A witness who testified at the trial said she was awakened by the smell of smoke, then overheard Bouchard calling the Fire Department to report the blaze.

Bouchard was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Robert J. Soares.