Tonopah woman charged with burning down neighbor’s trailer

TONOPAH — A Tonopah woman has been arrested for arson after investigators said she started the fire that burned down her neighbor’s trailer, a barn and at least five other trailers at Delk and Water streets earlier this month.

Nye County Sheriff’s deputies say Tanya Breedlove Carter had “made multiple threats” to her neighbor that she was “going to burn down their trailer” and was seen leaving their property on May 11, just minutes before the fire was reported.

Carter reportedly lived in another trailer on the same lot as her neighbor, who told deputies that Carter had called him around 3:24 a.m. on May 5 because they were fighting over items that she had been accused of stealing, according to an NCSO arrest report.

Carter had allegedly been “throwing balls of flaming rope” at her neighbor’s camp trailer earlier that morning, according to witness statements filed with the sheriff’s office. A neighbor reportedly confessed that he had helped Carter haul items from her neighbor’s trailer, according to the arrest report.

At least eight different structures, including a manufactured home and a Chevy truck were damaged by the blaze.

Carter was also involved with a house fire earlier this year at the corner of Cutting Street and Knapp Avenue in Tonopah, according to the arrest report.

The report did not indicate how Carter was connected.

Carter was booked last Thursday in the Nye County Detention Center on multiple counts of arson, residential burglary and larceny. She’s being held there on a $115,500 bond.

The state fire marshal’s office continues to investigate.

Email Editor Brent Schanding at bschanding@pvtimes.com.