The victim of an alleged arson attack took CBS News Miami through the horrifying moments inside her apartment in Hallandale Beach earlier this week. Her boyfriend is charged with setting the fire.
Yulianela Alvarez was shaking as she spoke to CBS News Miami. She said never in her life did she think her ex-boyfriend would set her apartment on fire with her inside it, but she also shares that this was not the first time he’s threatened her.
“If I didn’t wake up, I would be dead,” Alvarez told CBS News Miami.
Alvarez said she was lying in bed and opened her eyes to flames all around her.
“I just looked around and happened to open my eyes, and the fire was all around,” she said. “It was just so fast — it was on the ceiling and everything. And I just ran outside.”
Not the first time she was threatened by him, victim says
Broward Sheriff’s Office
Alvarez told CBS News Miami ex-boyfriend, 30-year-old Paul Hough, has threatened her before.
“I woke up and he was threatening me outside, but he had broken the windows before,” she said. “He had been breaking my windows. I look — he’s right there — but I don’t know how he started it.”
Alvarez told CBS News Miami she thought he would leave. Instead, he intentionally set the apartment on fire, Hallandale Beach Police said.
Once Hough was identified as the suspected arsonist, police found him at a nearby McDonald’s and took him into custody. CBS News Miami previously obtained video showing the moments of his arrest.
The aftermath of the arson attack
Hough appeared before a judge on Saturday.
“You’ve been charged with arson in the first-degree of a dwelling or building with people present, possession of cocaine, robbery by sudden snatching without a firearm or weapon, assault [and] burglary of an occupied structure unarmed,” the judge said.
Alvarez told CBS News Miami she is now left with nothing.
“I lost everything,” she said. “What is not burned — it’s smoke damage. I can’t take anything out of there.”
Hough is currently booked at the Broward County Main Jail on a $23,000 bond. During his court appearance, the judge also ordered him to have a mental and medical screening done as part of his bail requirements.
