Update: 6/26/09

According to authorities, Esther Hershko poured the lighter fluid into the crib of her estranged husband’s 5-month-old daughter, and then went outside to get more fluid when the neighbor saw her.

It is believed that Esther, who is suffering from cancer, had been separated from her husband, Itzhak, for six years and he had moved his new girlfriend, Dawn Ziccardi, who is the mother of the 5-month-old girl, into his beachfront mansion.

Original story

A New York woman is accused of trying to set her husband’s multimillion-dollar waterfront mansion on fire, Long Island officials confirmed.

Esther Hershko was charged with five counts of attempted murder, attempted arson and burglary for trying to set her estranged husband’s Hewlett Bay Park home on fire.

According to authorities, the forty-nine year old woman entered her husband’s home around 4:30 a.m. yesterday while he and four other people, including a five-month old baby, were asleep.

Once inside, authorities said she poured charcoal lighter fluid on the floor of one of the bedrooms then fled the home before lighting the fluid.

She then tossed the lighter fluid can in some bushes in front of the house where a neighbor saw her and called 911.

According to police, at the same time the neighbor was calling 911, Hershko’s husband, who had woken by his barking dog, called 911 after he became ill.

Hershko, who lives in Woodmere, was arrested a few minutes later.

She is expected to be arraigned this afternoon.