Prosecutors said the blaze injured the defendant’s mother and brother, three firefighters and other residents while leaving an 18-unit building uninhabitable.

DURHAM, N.C. — A 31-year-old woman was ordered held without bond after authorities accused her of deliberately setting a fire at a Durham apartment building, injuring several residents and firefighters and forcing 18 people from their homes.

Mahogany Ashley Massey faces one count of first-degree arson, three counts of arson resulting in serious injury to a firefighter and three counts of assault inflicting serious bodily injury, according to court records and local news reports. Prosecutors said investigators found what they described as a “people to kill list” among Massey’s belongings. The meaning, origin and full contents of the document have not been publicly released, and the allegation has not been tested at trial. Massey is presumed innocent unless she is convicted.

The fire broke out late Sunday morning at the University Ridge Apartments on University Drive. The Durham Fire Department dispatched crews at about 10:53 a.m., and the first units arrived within minutes to find heavy flames spreading through the building. Firefighters reported that fire had broken through the roof. One resident was rescued through a first-floor window, while four other occupants escaped without being carried out. Another resident jumped from an upper-floor window as flames and smoke blocked a safer route from the building.

Seven people were reported injured in connection with the fire, although early accounts differed on the exact breakdown of residents and firefighters. Court filings identified three firefighters as victims of injuries linked to the blaze. Prosecutors also said Massey’s mother suffered severe smoke inhalation and remained hospitalized after the fire. Massey’s brother was seriously hurt while trying to reach their mother, according to statements made during Massey’s first court appearance.

Prosecutors said heat from the fire caused glass to break while the brother was inside the building. A piece of glass struck his arm and severed an artery, according to the courtroom account. The prosecutor said he nearly bled to death. Authorities have not publicly released his name, a detailed medical update or the names of the injured firefighters. Officials also have not provided a complete public account of the injuries suffered by the remaining people included in the initial total.

The allegations against Massey extend beyond the damage caused by the Sunday fire. Prosecutors said investigators believed she had tried to start a fire at the apartment complex about a week earlier. WRAL reported that the Durham Fire Department had not confirmed that assertion when the station asked about it. No publicly available report reviewed for this article described the evidence behind the alleged earlier attempt, where it happened within the complex or whether it caused damage.

Authorities have also released little information about how the larger fire was allegedly started. Court documents accuse Massey of unlawful and malicious burning, but investigators had not publicly described an ignition source, an accelerant or a detailed sequence showing how the flames began. No surveillance recording, eyewitness account or forensic laboratory result establishing the cause has been publicly released. Those questions are expected to remain part of the criminal investigation and any later court proceedings.

The fire spread through an apartment building containing 18 units. Nine were occupied at the time, according to the Fire Department. Officials said none of the units remained livable after the blaze, displacing 18 residents. The destruction therefore became both a criminal case and a housing emergency for people who had no role in the alleged dispute involving Massey and members of her family.

The building did not have an automatic sprinkler system, fire officials told WRAL. Public property records showed that the complex was built in the 1980s. North Carolina did not require sprinkler systems in newly constructed apartment buildings until years after the complex was built, according to the station’s reporting. Officials did not say that the absence of sprinklers caused the fire, and the available reports did not identify a building-code violation. The detail instead helps explain the conditions firefighters encountered as flames moved through the older structure.

One survivor, 28-year-old Justice Houllier, told WRAL that smoke alarms began sounding in a neighboring apartment before the alarm in his own unit activated. When he saw the fire and could not use a normal exit, he left through a third-story window. Houllier said he landed on his feet but injured his back and foot. He was later seen wearing a back brace and said he had suffered a fractured spine and a serious foot injury. Houllier described the decision as a matter of survival. He said he took only a contact lens case before climbing through the window, leaving his other possessions behind. His account illustrated how quickly residents had to act as fire spread through the building. The fire destroyed or damaged their homes before crews brought it under control roughly an hour after the initial dispatch.

Massey remained near the scene during the emergency response, according to accounts from her father, Daron Massey. He told ABC11 that his daughter watched while her mother was taken to an ambulance. He said she remained seated, smoked a cigarette and drank a beer rather than approaching the ambulance. That description came from a family member speaking to a television station and has not been presented as evidence in a trial.

Daron Massey also said his daughter has experienced serious mental illness and had stopped taking prescribed medication about two months before the fire. He described past efforts to have her involuntarily committed and said she would later be released. His statements provide the family’s account of her health history, but no medical records or independent diagnosis were publicly available in the reports reviewed for this article.

A defense lawyer asked the judge to consider mental health treatment instead of keeping Massey in jail, according to courtroom coverage. Reports said Massey repeatedly interrupted the proceeding, and the judge continued after she was removed or was no longer present in the courtroom. The judge ultimately ruled that she posed a danger to the community and ordered that she remain in custody without bond.

A defendant’s reported mental illness does not by itself decide whether that person can be tried or held criminally responsible. Competency to proceed concerns whether a defendant can understand the court process and assist a lawyer. A separate legal question can arise over the defendant’s mental condition at the time of an alleged offense. The available reporting did not show that a court had ruled on either issue in Massey’s case.

The first-degree arson charge alleges an intentional burning of an occupied dwelling, while the other counts focus on the serious injuries that authorities say resulted. Prosecutors will still have to establish the legal elements of each charge with admissible evidence. The defense will have the opportunity to examine the investigation, challenge witnesses and contest the prosecution’s account. The publicly reported evidence is largely drawn from charging documents and statements made by prosecutors during an early hearing. Such proceedings are not trials, and judges often make release decisions before the defense has received or reviewed all investigative material. No plea, indictment, competency determination or trial date was identified in the sources reviewed for this article.

Authorities have not disclosed whether every person named on the alleged list was connected to the apartment building, whether Massey’s mother and brother were listed or whether investigators believe the document represented a concrete plan. Describing it as a “kill list” reflects the prosecution’s characterization. Its evidentiary significance will depend on its contents, when it was created and whether investigators can reliably connect it to the fire.

The Durham fire left a family coping with major injuries, firefighters recovering from harm suffered on duty and residents searching for replacement housing. It also opened a criminal case in which allegations about intent, family conflict and mental health will require further examination in court. Massey remained in the Durham County Detention Center under the no-bond order at the latest publicly confirmed stage of the case. A later court outcome could not be independently verified through the sources available for this report.

Author note: Last updated July 15, 2026.