AUBURN – A man estranged from his wife was being sought Friday after he attacked his mother-in-law while trying to abduct his 4-year-old daughter, police said.

Jacques Charles Clermont, 50, also may be linked to a fire that destroyed the family’s summer home in Tamworth, N.H.

Clermont has been charged with assault, aggravated assault and illegal use of a chemical agent, according to Sgt. Rick Coron of the Auburn police.

Sheryl Mathews of Auburn was dropping off her granddaughter at day care Thursday when a man in a ski mask attacked them in the parking lot. Mathews said she saw the man’s eyes and recognized him as her daughter’s estranged husband, police said.

Mathews said she wrapped her arms and legs around the child and fell to the ground to protect her after the man sprayed them with Mace. She said he punched her in the head before someone came to help.

The man escaped in a white Pontiac Grand Am with three people inside. The car had out-of-state license plates.

“The family has a house in New Hampshire and they thought it might be in jeopardy,” Coron said. “They called police there and 21/2 to three hours later, they received notification that the house was fully engulfed. We’re assuming that [Clermont] is a suspect if the fire marshal there rules it suspicious.”

The cause of the Thursday morning fire was still under investigation Friday afternoon. All that remained of the unoccupied home was the chimney. The home is owned by the Mathews family trust.

“We haven’t made any link to the incident in Auburn, Maine,” said Donald Bliss, the New Hampshire state fire marshal.

Mathews said Thursday evening that the family still was frightened by the ordeal even as police officers installed alarms in her home.

“I’m still pretty shaky, still pretty sick to my stomach,” she said.

Clermont is a Canadian citizen. He lived most recently in Guadalajara, Mexico, but is from Ottawa and has lived in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Mathews said.