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Youth Hostel Fire Was Arson
posted (April 1, 2015)

Last night we told you about the fire Youth Hostel at Mile 21 on the George Price Highway. The suspicion at the time was that one of the troubled girls, who was a resident there, started the fire. Well, the Fire Department has determined that someone id intentionally start the fire.

This afternoon the Fire Department discussed their findings with the press, and with that final piece of the puzzle in place, Daniel Ortiz took a closer look at the fire:

When we arrived on scene yesterday, the Female dormitory was ablaze, thick grey smoke kept rising, and the intense heat meant that the fire was doing major damage.

Daniel Ortiz Reporting…

The Fire engine arrived shortly after the fire was reported to Police, but try as they might, the fire fighters could only work to stop it from spreading any further.

Benisford Matura – Operations Officer, Fire Department

"Approximately about 5 pass 3 in the afternoon we received call from police of a structure fire at the youth hostel at mile 21 on the George price highway. We immediately dispatched our Ladyville fire truck being that would be the closes one. Upon arrival a 50 by 30 structure to the back of the compound was engulfed in flames and grey thick smoke coming from the roof area. We got into operation and extinguish the fire. The fire was mostly based in the roof so it's an open structure it spread all over the entire roof."

The Fire fighters got the blaze under control, but, as you can see with the couches in the yard, all belongings inside got either fire or water damage. The interior of the female dorm was gutted.

Starla Bradley- Acosta - Director, Community Rehabilitation Department

This has indeed destroyed the female dormitory - all the contents. It allegedly started in one of the dorms to the back. We are still trying to ascertain exactly what happened and we are working along with the police. It is the girl's dormitory. Some of the girls were actually in the building at the time the fire started and so we just managed to quickly get them out and try to contain them. Right now everybody is highly emotional. One of the challenges with working with this population is the fact that a lot of the children do have severe mental illness and so quite often there are challenges that come along with that and so, the fire department has just inform that the fire is now out. Pretty much, everything that was in the building was destroyed."

Yesterday, the director couldn't answer any questions if this was arson or not.

Daniel Ortiz

"Ma'am, the suspicion we are getting from unconfirmed sources is that it is arson. Is that indeed the suspicion that you all have as well?"

Starla Bradley- Acosta

"I've heard varying stories and that why we have to ascertain what happened. All we know that a mattress in the back was ablaze when the officers opened the dorm and from there they just try to quickly get everybody out."

Fire officials have since investigated, and they've determined that this mattress was intentionally lit by someone who wanted to start a fire. That Mattress was in one of the 4 dorms in the building.

Benisford Matura

"From our investigations the fire originated in dorm 2 which is north east of the structure. Further investigations to ascertain the cause of the fire we detected that the fire started on a mattress on one of the bunkbeds in the dorm. So it was at an area where they should be no fire, so you class it as an incendiary fire and basically it was intentionally set by someone."

Daniel Ortiz

"To speak plainly, this is arson?"

Benisford Matura

"It's an incendiary fire. Arson is now what the police would investigate and see if it was arson. An incendiary fire like we've said before is a fire placed where it shouldn't have been for example on a mattress in a dorm, that is a place where a fire should not be but it was set there by someone."

The experience scared all the other young women who were housed in the dorm, and now, now more money will have to be invested to repair the fire damage, if the Hostel still wants to renovate this building for about 300 thousand dollars.

Reporter

"Are you able to speak to us about the value of the building and the contents?"

Starla Bradley- Acosta

"Not at this time. I know the building was renovated about 10 years ago but we were preparing to renovate in the next 2 months to start a complete renovation. As you know we have a new facility and we wanted to upgrade this one as well because it really needed some renovation."

As we told you, 4 young women were taken into custody by the police, and they were questioned about their possible connection to the arson.

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