Public tenant Donna Fox torched three public housing homes A public housing tenant has been jailed after setting fire to three separate homes she was not happy with. Three of the woman's four cats and both of her pet rabbits perished in the blaze. Neighbours and fire crews were able to rescue her three dogs and one of the cats from the single-storey brick home in Footscray. Police became suspicious when they learned that two of her previous addresses had also been set alight, and started an investigation using an undercover officer. Fox eventually told the undercover officer that she started the blazes. The County Court heard Fox told a friend she was unhappy with where she was living in Footscray and wanted to burn it down. Despite her friend's warning not to, she lit the 2011 fire and caused more than $400,000 damage. The two other fires were in April 2003, and July 2005, when she poured alcohol on the carpet and used a cigarette lighter to ignite it. The damage from those fires was $220,000. "In light of this offending and your lengthy criminal history, I must place considerable weight on the need to protect the community," County Court judge Gabriele Cannon Judge Cannon said. She said Fox had been suicidal at the time of some of the offending, and suffered depression and had endured a terrible upbringing. The Judge said jail would harder for Fox because of her mental health issues. Fox pleaded guilty to three counts of arson and was sentenced to four years' jail, with minimum of two years.