PALMETTO, Fla. (WFLA)—The State Fire Marshal says someone intentionally set a fire to a storage facility at a downtown Palmetto business.
According to officials, the blaze began at around 7:30 Friday morning in a building behind Auto Dealer Solutions on 8th Avenue West. Dark black smoke towered into the sky as crews from multiple agencies worked to fight the blaze.
The storage facility is actually a historic church building that was being used as a storage facility for tires and other materials.
Firefighters say this made it more difficult to put out the flames.
“It was a big deal, a heavy fire load…We had a ton of petroleum-based product inside, tires a lot of carpet, rugs and such so it was defensive right off the bat,” said North River Fire District Captain Joe Sicking.
Once the smoke cleared, investigators combed through the remains. Surveillance images showed a burglar broke into multiple buildings on the property just before the blaze.
“He threw a hammer into the back door of the main building and he got inside the building and then the alarm went off,” said business owner Ben Shives.
The crook even left blood behind at the scene.
“Once the alarm went off it looks like they ransacked a couple of things, tried to look for something and then ran away because the alarm was going off,” said Shives.
Unfortunately the burglar set this fire before taking off. This storage facility was once a historic church that’s been here for nearly a century. Now, the building will likely be a total loss.
The damage is certainly a setback for this dealership, but the business owner will not be discouraged.
“Nobody was injured. Its only things, things can be replaced, people can’t so we’re fortunate that nothing was that badly damaged,” said Shives.
“It’s a sad thing that someone has to resort to this type of thing,” Shives added.
The business owner claims he has no disgruntled customers or former employees, so he doesn’t know why someone would do this.
The State Fire Marshal’s office and Palmetto Police are investigating, so if you have any information, give them a call.
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