An Easter Sunday domestic got hot and heated and ended with an Opp man facing an arson charge.

Steve Holmes, public information officer for the state fire marshal’s office, said Tuesday the investigation began at 3:30 a.m. when the Opp Police Department was called to an already extinguished fire at a housing authority duplex apartment on MLK Drive.

“The door to one of the apartments was badly burned, but had been extinguished,” Holmes said. “The set fire apparently stemmed from a domestic argument between the female occupant of the apartment and her boyfriend.”

Holmes said a joint investigation between the fire marshal’s office and the OPD was launched the following morning and ended when Frank Clifford Lacey III confessed to starting the fire.

Lacey was charged with first-degree arson for allegedly setting fire to an occupied dwelling and was booked into the Covington County Jail on a $30,000 bond.

Holmes reminded residents that to report arson, or suspicious fires to call the state arson hotline at 1-800-654-0775 of visit firemarshal.alabama.gov.