A Medford man was arraigned in his hospital bed today on charges that he sparked an early morning conflagration that injured at least a dozen people and caused at least $4 million in property damages that left multiple homes unsafe for habitation, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

ABDUL JABAR MOHAMED (D.O.B. 1/1/83) was charged with assault with intent to murder, arson of a dwelling, igniting a destructive device or substance, malicious destruction of property, and causing injury to a firefighter. Assistant District Attorney Dana Pierce of Conley’s Senior Trial Unit recommended that he be held on half a million dollars’ cash bail; Judge David Weingarten set bail at $100,000.

Weingarten imposed three conditions of release recommended by Pierce: if Mohamed posts bail, he must surrender his passport and/or green card, he must check in twice weekly with the Department of Probation, and he must not leave Massachusetts while his case is pending.

“There’s evidence that this was a suicide attempt,” Conley said. “That may be. But it was much more than that: this fire caused an explosion that blew out an entire wall of a residential building in the middle of the night. It put dozens, if not hundreds, of lives in jeopardy. But for the brave and decisive action of Boston firefighters – and even the residents themselves – this could have been a tragedy of disastrous proportions.”

Mohamed suffered serious burn injuries in the fire and was arraigned in the Burn Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital. He was transported there from the Boston Medical Center, where he presented himself early Monday morning after allegedly setting the fire in a relative’s first-floor apartment at 71 Westminster Ave.

Police gathering names and contact information at local hospitals questioned Mohamed later the same morning, first believing him to be a victim of the fire and not the person who caused it. It was at that time that he allegedly made statements that he “burned the house down.”

Pierce said Mohamed pulled the relative’s gas stove away from the wall, then reached behind it and wrenched away a pipe leading from the stove to the building’s gas main. When the pipe was “twisted, mangled, and broken away” from the stove, he allegedly set it alight with an open flame. The power of the explosion knocked away part of the building’s exterior facing Wardman Road and Westminster Avenue.

“The fire extended vertically and engulfed all three floors,” Pierce said at the arraignment. “It spread horizontally about 100 feet, encompassing most of the roof.”

The fire spread from the initial Westminster Avenue site to the buildings at 3, 7, 9, and 11 Wardman Rd., she said. Boston Police and Boston Fire personnel broke through the front door into the Westminster Avenue building only to find the staircase collapsed and the upper floors inaccessible.

Residents were jumping from the upper windows, with one family tossing a young child into the waiting arms of a firefighter, Pierce said, adding that firefighters used ladder trucks and “aerial methods” to rescue other trapped occupants. Pierce said five to 10 residents and six firefighters suffered injuries that included lacerations, sprains, and smoke inhalation.

Pierce said the buildings are uninhabitable, with 50 to 60 residents displaced by the blaze. An initial estimate of $3 million in damages has grown to a “cautious estimate” of $4 million that does not include residents’ personal property.

Mohamed was represented by attorney Neni Odiaga. His next court date is Nov. 17.