WINTERPORT – Harsh words turned incendiary Tuesday when an angry husband allegedly poured flammable liquid throughout the family home and set it on fire.

David Brown, 42, of Winterport was charged with arson in the aftermath of the Tuesday morning fire at the trailer home at 33 Coles Corner Road he shared with his wife, Holly, and their children. Holly Brown was present when her husband allegedly struck the match that destroyed their home.

“They were having some domestic problems,” Maine State Trooper Perry Hatch said Tuesday. “They had a verbal argument last night and it started again when the kids went to school this morning. He dumped some sort of petroleum product throughout the trailer – she tried to stop him – and he lit it.”

Hatch said the Browns were able to escape the flames without injury and that David Brown immediately left the scene in his pickup truck. Hatch said Brown was in contact with his mother by cell phone at the same time firefighters tried in vain to save his home. Brown’s mother had urged him to give himself up, said Hatch.

Trooper Chris Tremblay spotted Brown downtown a short time later and placed him under arrest. Tremblay took Brown back to the scene where he was placed in a Winterport ambulance for medical observation. His shoes and clothing were removed for evidence and Brown was taken to the Waldo County Jail wearing only a sheet.

Winterport Fire Chief Stan Bowden said the fire alarm came in at 8:25 a.m. and that the trailer was engulfed in flames when he and two firefighters arrived. Flames were shooting out the doorjamb when they drove up, he said.

Bowden said the three managed to “make the initial knockdown and push the fire back” by using water from a tanker truck.

Bowden said the fire was confined to the interior of the trailer and was extinguished in about an hour. He said the trailer still was standing but that damage to the inside caused by fire, heat and smoke was extensive.

“The water supply was good,” said Bowden. “It was getting the manpower up there that was the problem. It’s hard to find people that time of day. I had to go far and wide for mutual aid.”

Bowden said firefighters from Hermon, Hampden, Monroe, Frankfort, Prospect and Stockton Springs responded to the call for assistance. He also commended “the local citizens who came up and gave us a hand pulling hoses.”

Bowden said the case was turned over to state Fire Marshal Kenneth Grimes. Brown is being held on $50,000 bail.