Police interview witnesses at the location of the fourth fire on Cordova Street.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – As I arrived on the scene this morning the investigation was well underway. The state and city fire marshals were both working this investigation along with the ATF. They were focusing their attention on trying to figure out the cause of the four early-morning fires.
Just before 10 a.m. the city Fire Marshal Bob Growick came and told me that at least two of the fires were the work of an arsonist. They were working with police to review surveillance video to try to get a description of the suspect.
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We talked with a manager at The Chocolate Turtle which is located right next door to one of buildings on Cordova that partially collapsed because of the fire and they were thankful that the building was not damaged. Laura Highsmith said they've only been open 10 weeks and just had the original shingles replaced and she believes that saved her building.
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The Chocolate Turtle serves delicious dessert, coffee and wine, and even came around with trays of dessert for the firefighters and also the TV crews. (That's how I know they're delicious.)
There was a lot of disappointment and sadness in this community that has worked so hard to restore and preserve these homes. All of the homes that were on fire are at least 100 years old.
Growick said a similar rash of fires happened 12 to 15 years ago when someone set fire to old buildings in St. Augustine and they never caught the person responsible. This time they're hoping they have enough intelligence to eventually make an arrest.
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According to SJCFR, the first fire was reported at 3:25 a.m. at an architectural office on 45 Cordova Street in downtown St. Augustine. According to the Yellow Pages, the address is listed at Dixon Design Group Inc. The building partially collapsed and firefighters said he building was unoccupied.A second fire was reported minutes later, two blocks from the office fire, on 17 Saragossa Street at a vacant home. Firefighters quickly knocked the fire down in a couple minutes and no injuries were reported.A third fire destroyed a home on Park Place an hour later. Firefighters noticed multiple downed power lines in the neighborhood and FPL shut off the power to the neighborhood.The home collapsed during the fire, and a home next to to it was also damaged by fire, according to the St. Augustine Fire Marshal."There's been a lot of chaos, as far as the difficulty for the fire department," said Commander Barry Fox with the St. Augustine Police Department."At this point we've got some suspect information, but the information contradicts each other from scene to scene, so we're still working through those witnesses and that information to try get a better idea of what we're looking for," said Commander Barry Fox with the St. Augustine Police Department.Firefighters remained on scene for hours Monday morning, checking for hot spots and making sure the surrounding buildings were safe.Firefighters said the home on Park Place was abandoned and it collapsed during the fire fight."Down there [on Cordova Street] a location was found underneath another house, where it appears as though another fire had been set. The fire department is working on that to find out if its related to debris from the particular structure or if it was intentionally set," said Commander Barry Fox.This fire started about 80 yards from the original fire on Cordova Street. This marks the fourth fire in downtown St. Augustine.All four fires started around the same time early Monday morning, just blocks from one another.When the fire was out, the back of the first house to burn on Cordova Street had collapsed.The federal Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives joined state and local fire marshals in investigating the cause of the fires.By afternoon, three of the four fires had been ruled arson.
According to SJCFR, the first fire was reported at 3:25 a.m. at an architectural office on 45 Cordova Street in downtown St. Augustine. According to the Yellow Pages, the address is listed at Dixon Design Group Inc. The building partially collapsed and firefighters said he building was unoccupied.
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