A Belconnen man faced court on Tuesday accused of setting fire to his partner's house while he assumed she was asleep inside.
The 61-year-old appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court charged with arson and an act endangering life.
He applied for bail, but Special Magistrate Ken Cush sent him off in the care of corrections officer for a mental health assessment.
A police statement of facts tendered to the court alleged that after man had set the house on fire he returned to his apartment balcony about 30 metres away to watch it burn.
At about 11.20am, the man had gone to a nearby Caltex station, a visit that was allegedly captured on CCTV, and filled up a jerry can. He returned to Ranken Loop, where it's alleged he climbed over the woman's fence, poured the petrol over the house and used a lighter to spark a fire.
It's alleged the woman was sleeping in bed when she was woken up by a loud bang. She got up and found her kitchen burning. The woman tried to leave, but couldn't find the keys for the front door. She eventually left out the back.
When police arrived, they found a woman with her arms and face covered in soot and her hair singed. She was treated in hospital for smoke inhalation and minor burns.
Her partner, the man accused of the fire, had offered to take care of the woman's dog Sooky while she went to the hospital.
Later that afternoon, the man was arrested and interviewed by police. The man said he assumed his partner was asleep in bed, and assumed she would wake up in time to get out of the house, police allege.
He said he realised if his partner had not woken up that she may have died in the fire, but he did not think about that at the time.
Court documents also say officers had gone to the man's property earlier that morning at about 7.10am, after he contacted them alleging the woman had slashed his car tyres.
After the fire, officers had overheard a conversation in which the woman apologised to the man for slashing his tyres, saying, "I don't like you driving when you don't have a licence."
Police say the woman and the man had been in a relationship for about 20 years.
In a statement outside court, authorities estimated damage to the house at $400,000.
The 61-year-old man addressed the court on Tuesday and said he could not express how he had felt when he saw his fiancée coming out of the property.
He said what had happened was out of character, and the breakdown of their relationship had "led to an escalation of things that got out of control."
"I feel a deep sense of remorse and guilt for what happened," he said.
The man did not enter pleas on Tuesday.
He applied for bail through his Legal Aid duty solicitor. The prosecution opposed his release, and also opposed a mental health assessment.
But Mr Cush sent the man from court for an assessment.
He will return to court at a later date.