One hour, four fires

<font size="3">Officials probing series of Saturday night blazes</font>

<b>By Christin Coyne</b><br><a href="mailto:ccoyne@mineralwellsindex.com">ccoyne@mineralwellsindex.com</a>

Four suspicious fires broke out across the Mineral Wells area within minutes of each other Saturday night, two destroying vacant buildings and one damaging the former Nazareth hospital.

“It appears all were intentionally set,” said Mineral Wells Fire Marshal Joel Thompson, who is investigating the three building fires.

A grassfire west of Mineral Wells during the same time period was also likely intentional, officials said.

About 11 p.m. Saturday a fire was called in at the former Nazareth Hospital at 314 N.W. 4th Street.

While firefighters were battling the small blaze in the basement, a call came in about 11:30 p.m. reporting flames coming through the roof of a building on Van Story Road near Gorgas Street at Wolters Industrial Park.

Twenty minutes later, a Mineral Wells police officer on his way to another call reported a fire at a vacant trailer house in the 1400 block of S.E. 6th Street.

Ten minutes after midnight Sunday morning, a grassfire at North Keller Road and Hideaway Acres Road was reported.

Because Mineral Wells firefighters and vehicles were already stretched thin across the city, Palo Pinto Volunteer Fire Department responded to the last call.

All four fires were going at once, Mineral Wells Volunteer Fire Chief Steve Perdue said.

The fire at the old Nazareth hospital started in the basement near the front of the building.

“It just smoked up the place,” Perdue said.

There was smoke damage throughout the building but there no structural damage, according to Perdue.

“It had to be a set fire,” Perdue said. “There was no electrical around it.”

Though the fire was not huge, firefighters did have to search the entire building and break out the ceiling, according to Perdue, a time-consuming task when the other fires were burning.

Father and sons, Lister, Frank and Don Rollins were at the former Nazareth hospital Monday boarding up several lower level windows with sheets of metal and supporting boards in the back to make any future entry to the building more difficult.

A sign posted in front of the building offering a reward for information leading to an arrest for an intentionally set fire was torn down sometime while the men were gone getting supplies, Don and Frank Rollins said.

The brightly colored sign was attached to a wooden sign placed in the ground in front of the building when they first arrived at the building that morning, Don Rollins said.

They noticed it missing early that afternoon.

Signs requesting information be reported to the state fire marshal’s office were also posted in front of the other two building fire scenes.

Millsap and Cool-Garner volunteer fire departments assisted at the old barracks fire, according to Perdue.

The building on Van Story Road belonged to New-tronics, an antenna manufacturer that has been at the site for 25 to 30 years.

Tina Chipps, the plant manager at New-tronics, said the old barracks building had several old file cabinets and obsolete odds and ends stored in it but didn’t contain much of value.

“I’m still kind of in shock that somebody would burn it,” Chipps said.

The building did not have electric or gas service and was the least vandalized of all the area barracks buildings, Chipps said.

“All the windows were intact and all the doors had locks,” Chipps said.

“We’ve caught several people out here, mostly people trying to strip the wiring [for the metal value],” Chipps said.

However, she doesn’t remember anything like the current fire.

“They had to be pretty bored,” Chipps said.

An AT&T; employee was repairing melted phone lines on Van Story Road Monday afternoon.

He said several businesses east of the fire on Lee Road were without phone service because of the damage.

Millsap also helped respond to the trailer house fire on S.E. 6th Street when Mineral Wells pulled a truck from the barracks blaze to respond to the call after the fire was spotted by a police officer, according to Perdue.

It sat between two nearby homes in the mobile home park.

The house was vacant and without electricity or gas service, Perdue said.

It was also considered a total loss.

Palo Pinto VFD put out the grassfire on Hideaway Acres Road.

“We [MWVFD] were kind of running out of trucks,” Perdue said.

Perdue said the grassfire started near the roadway and burned a small patch of ground, estimating around 25 square feet.

While the cause of the fire might have been attributed to something like fireworks on a normal night, Perdue said the fourth fire was a bit too coincidental considering the high humidity, the cold night and the other fires.

Though Thompson said he had not yet determined how the fires were started, he said he and another investigator would likely be able to wrap up the investigation fairly quickly.

“I’m glad they were all vacant, unoccupied buildings,” Thompson said.

Information on the fires can be reported through Crime Stoppers and the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Information can be left anonymously at the Palo Pinto County Crime Stoppers number: (940) 325-0000. Individuals providing information though Crime Stoppers that leads to an arrest and indictment of anyone committing a felony are eligible for a reward up to $1,000.

Information can also be reported by calling 1-877-434-7345. Any information that leads to the arrest of anybody responsible for an intentionally set fire could be rewarded with up to $1,000.

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