An employee of a popular restaurant and tavern allegedly asked another for advice on how to set it on fire — now he is charged with arson.
The combination of flaming stove burners and cooking oil, left atop the stove and spread on walls, caused minor damage to Goodfellas Pub & Pizza on Wednesday, though the business remained closed Monday.
That obvious evidence of arson and his own statements led police on Friday to arrest Scott Sutherland, 34, of Pekin. He was charged in bonding court Sunday and remained in custody Monday on $10,000 bond.
Sutherland’s alleged plan to destroy the business at 1414 N. Eighth St. “didn’t work out the way he thought it would,” Pekin Deputy Fire Chief Brian Cox said Monday. Cooking oil “is not very flammable.”
Sutherland, a bartender and cook, told a fellow employee sometime before the fire “about moving to Texas and burning the business down,” and asked her if she knew how to set it on fire, according to a prosecutor’s court affidavit.
Loud and electronic alarms set off by a sprinkler system alerted an officer in the area of the North Eighth Street Plaza, where Goodfellas is located, and firefighters to the smoldering flames in the business shortly before noon.
While other businesses in the plaza were evacuated, the sprinklers kept the fire “in check until we got there,” Cox said. Firefighters discovered that all of the restaurant’s kitchen burners had been left on full blast, as well as its broiler and a fryer, the affidavit stated. A box of cooking oil sat on one of the burners, while more oil was smeared on walls where evidence of fire also was found.
Sutherland allegedly prepared what he thought would turn into a huge blaze more than six hours earlier, after the business closed for the night.
The restaurant’s security video equipment was missing, but video from another security system in the area recorded a man identified as Sutherland in the building between 4 and 5 a.m., “holding electronic equipment and pouring a substance on hallway walls,” the affidavit stated.
Several employees said Sutherland was the last worker to leave Goodfellas the night before the fire and had keys to the business, the affidavit stated.
Sutherland told police Friday that he didn’t remember setting the fire and didn’t do so on purpose, but thought it might have been “a drunken mistake,” the affidavit stated.
He said he had returned to the business after closing to retrieve his apartment keys. He slipped on grease on the kitchen floor and bumped the stove, but didn’t think he turned it on.
Police are seeking a male suspect in relation to a suspicious fire that targeted the Centre métropolitain de chirurgie in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough in Montreal, the only medical clinic in Canada that offers gender reassignment surgery.
Firefighters were alerted to a fire at the clinic at 8:44 p.m. Monday. About 20 firefighters rushed to the scene, but the fire was extinguished by an automatic sprinkler system. The fire was in an operating room, according to Montreal Fire Prevention Service spokesperson Mélanie Drouin. There were a few staff members and patients in the building at the time but they got out before firefighters arrived.
Drouin said damages are estimated by fire department officials at about $700,000. Medical equipment was damaged by water and smoke, she said. The clinic provides a variety of plastic surgeries and body surgeries, including breast augmentation or reduction, facelifts, liposuction and gender reassignment surgery (GRS).
The news spread quickly among members of the transgender community in Montreal and across Canada. Some are concerned that the fire will exacerbate the already lengthy waiting periods for gender reassignment surgery at the clinic. There is also speculation as to whether the clinic was targeted because it offers GRS.
“It would certainly seem relevant that the arson targeted the only clinic in Canada that currently provides GRS and other trans-related surgeries — especially at a time when things are becoming increasingly polarized on trans issues,” said Mercedes Allen, an advocate for transsexual and transgender communities in Alberta who writes on equality, human rights, LGBT and sexual minority issues in Canada.
“Something like this is certainly not going to help a community that already feels targeted. I also hope for the sake of the surgeons and staff that they too won’t have to start living in fear of violence. However, I’d also want to be careful not to be too quick to assume that this is hate-motivated,” Allen said.
Constable Manuel Couture, a Montreal police spokesperson, said investigators are aware of the services offered by the clinic, but had not, to his knowledge, classified the fire as a suspected hate crime by Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t have any information right now to indicate that this was some kind of hate crime, but investigators are aware of that and as soon as they have the slightest suspicion that something could be a hate crime, they transfer it to the Hate Crimes Unit,” Couture said.
“This is devastating for trans health care,” Sophia Banks, a Montreal-based photographer and trans-rights advocate told the National Post. “People are freaking out” about wait times and how long the clinic will be closed. She said they’re also concerned about why this happened
An arson fire scorched an Industry warehouse packed with paper goods Wednesday, authorities said. The fire was first reported about 2:45 a.m. at a 55,000-square-foot warehouse in the 700 block of South 5th Avenue, Los Angeles County fire and sheriff’s officials said.
Though largely “kept in check” by the building’s sprinkler system, firefighters battled the stubborn blaze for nearly two hours until it was declared extinguished, Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Randall Wright said. No injuries were reported.
But firefighters determined the scene of the fire appeared suspicious and called in investigators from the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Arson-Explosives Detail, Wright said. “The cause is arson,” sheriff’s Detective Cynthia Valencia said. It appeared the arsonist spread gasoline around in the rear portion of the warehouse before lighting it on fire.
The intent of the arsonists appeared to be to destroy the building, but they were thwarted by the businesses’ fire-suppression system, she added. “(The) sprinkler system did a great job,” Valencia said.
Preliminary estimates of the damage caused to the warehouse, as well as the paper plates, paper cups and other similar items stored inside ranged between $300,000 and $500,000, the detective said.
A subleased portion of the warehouse, which is used as a packaging business, was unscathed, she said. Investigators continued seeking clues Thursday, and trying to determine who would want to torch the warehouse, Valencia said.
The arsonists were described only as two men, driving a sedan. “The owner is very cooperative,” Valencia said. Firefighters remained at the scene until about noon, Wright said.
Any witnesses, or anyone who saw anything suspicious early Wednesday morning is asked to contact Detective Valencia at the sheriff’s Arson-Explosives Detail at 323-881-7500. Tips may also be submitted anonymously to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
Five people were displaced from a residential assisted living home on Pleasant Street Sunday morning when a small fire broke out in a bedroom. The fire, reported at 7:56 a.m., was mostly extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system, according to a news release from the Waterville Fire Department.
The home is operated by Motivational Services Inc., an Augusta-based organization that provides services and programs for individuals with mental illnesses, according to their website. The five residents who were displaced have been moved to other area programs run by the organization, Executive Director Michael Provencher said.
Firefighters arrived at the scene at 8:01 a.m. and completely extinguished the fire by 8:06 a.m. Firefighters worked quickly to ensure that the fire had not spread, which they determined by 8:17 a.m., according to Captain Shawn Esler. Since the home is a licensed health care facility, it is protocol for the fire department to call the state fire marshal’s office.
Investigators from the fire marshal’s office cleared the scene around 1:30 p.m. Sunday after completing safety inspections in the home. Ken MacMaster, an investigator with the fire marshal’s office, said the investigation is ongoing and could not comment on the cause of the fire, though he said it had been determined. He also could not say whether it was believed to be of suspicious origin.
No additional information will be available from the fire marshal’s office until Monday, MacMaster said. Provencher could not comment in regards to the individuals who lived in the home, stating their conditions are “confidential.” He said that once minor repairs and alarm checks were completed the individuals would be able to return to the home.
Twenty-one firefighters from the Waterville Fire Department responded to the call. Mutual aide from the Winslow Fire Department and the Fairfield Fire Department were dispatched to the scene but were released once the fire was under control, the news release said.
Six thousand dollars in reward money is being offered by the First Baptist Church of Church Hill ($5,000) and the Church Hill Police Department ($1,000) for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for an early Wednesday burglary and fire at the First Baptist Church of Church Hill on East Main Boulevard.
The church sustained fire, smoke and water damage early Wednesday apparently after burglars started two fires in the sanctuary. On Wednesday afternoon, Church Hill Police Chief Mark Johnson issued a news release on Wednesday afternoon about the incident in which he asked that anyone with knowledge of the crime call police.
“On March 23rd at approximately 2:50 a.m., officers with the Church Hill Police Department responded to a fire alarm at the First Baptist Church of Church Hill located at 202 E. Main Blvd.,” Chief Johnson wrote in the news release. “Church Hill Officers observed flames inside the sanctuary. The Church Hill Fire Department was paged out and responded to the scene. The fire was quickly extinguished by a combination of the sprinkler system and responding firefighters. However, the church was heavily damaged by smoke and water from the sprinkler system.”
The fire chief noted that by the time firefighters entered the church sanctuary, the church’s fire sprinklers had discharged, extinguishing the two fires in the altar area of the church. “We didn’t have to use any water to put out the fires,” Chief Wood said. “But the sanctuary was filled with smoke and we used fans to get as much of it out as possible.”
Firefighters quickly determined that the two sanctuary fires had been intentionally set, Chief Wood said. He noted that the fires remain under investigation by the Church Hill Police Department. A police spokesperson said this morning that a report about the fire was not yet on file and that Police Chief Mark Johnson was not available for comment.
The police chief noted in the news release that a CHPD investigation revealed that someone (likely more than one) gained entry to the church by an unknown means. “There is a possibility that the suspect(s) had access to one or more keys to the church,” Chief Johnson wrote.
However they entered the church, the suspect(s) committed petty vandalism by pouring toilet bowl cleaner onto the floor, the chief noted in news release. The suspect(s) also committed theft by removing multiple miscellaneous items from the locked music room, then placing the items in a pile outside (the church) before abandoning them, the chief wrote.
“The suspect(s) deliberately set two fires near the stage/altar,” Chief Johnson wrote. “One in the middle. The other on the left side on the steps leading to the altar. we are estimating the fire, smoke, and water damage will end up exceeding a million dollars. We are excluding no one as a suspect, however, this may have crime may have been committed by young people.”
The chief also noted that Church Hill police are in possession of items the suspect(s) handled and will be forwarding them to the TBI crime lab with a request to detect latent fingerprints. “We have also made a request to obtain video footage of a nearby business with surveillance equipment,” Chief Johnson wrote.
The chief noted that First Baptist Church of Church Hill is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the damage while the Church Hill Police Department is offering a separate $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible.
“I am asking anyone with any information on this despicable crime to contact us immediately by calling (423) 357-7181 or (423) 357-3487,” Chief Johnson wrote.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
