Arrest made in connection with Papi Cuisine dumpster fire, Baltimore Police say

A Baltimore woman was arrested Friday in connection to a dumpster fire Monday behind Papi Cuisine, a restaurant in Federal Hill.

Investigators say Sheena Herring, 47, of Baltimore, was responsible for setting the fire, according to a Baltimore Police news release.

Herring has been charged with two felony counts —second-degree arson and first-degree malicious burning — and a misdemeanor count of arson in trash containers.  She is being held without bond, according to electronic court records.

At 9:17 a.m. Monday, police and fire units responded to the restaurant on East Wells Street and extinguished the fire, which caused minor damage, without injury. The city’s Arson Task Force was investigating the blaze, police said.

The restaurant, which serves Afro-Caribbean fare, delayed opening by three hours on Monday because of the fire.

In the Instagram video, one of the restaurant’s owners, Alex Perez, linked the fire to opposition from neighbors who made a failed bid last month to encourage the city’s Board of Liquor License Commissioners not to renew the restaurant’s liquor license.

The board renewed Papi Cuisine’s liquor license last month after protests from about 10 neighbors, who submitted complaints about double-parked cars, litter, public intoxication, drag racing and fights outside the restaurant. The restaurant’s owners have denied the business and its customers being involved in those disturbances.