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Highlands Today

Arson Fire Burns Sebring Home

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: October 4, 2008

SEBRING - Fire officials notified the state Fire Marshal's Office when an empty rental home caught fire Friday morning at 419-B. S. Pine St., in downtown Sebring.

"It has been ruled an arson fire," said Sam Venzeio, public information officer with the state Fire Marshal's Office.
Fire Chief Brad Batz with Sebring Fire Rescue said Friday morning that's standard procedure when a house has stood empty and caught fire during the middle of the night on a clear night.

There was electric power to the pole leading to the home however, he said.

"The house was fully involved from the front porch and the front half when our firefighters got there," said Batz.

There was some fire on the ground outside, he said, but it's hard to say if it started outside and spread to the house or if it spread from the house to the ground.

"Nobody was living there," he said. "The renters moved out two or three days ago."

The call came in about 1:54 a.m. and the fire was declared under control at 2:37 a.m., Batz said. Five on-duty and four off-duty firefighters fought the fire with two engines and the city's ladder truck on scene.

The fire caused $60,000 damage, Venzeio said.

Firefighters cleared the scene at 5:12 a.m. No one was injured.
State Fire Marshal investigators were talking to several persons of interest this morning, Venzeio said.

Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

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