Arson suspected in large fire at Texas courthouse

“Right now, it is just a shell,” he told television station KXAN. “It just breaks your heart to glimpse at it.”

He informed The Related Press on Friday that fire investigators suspect arson in both of those the courthouse fire and another blaze all around the same time at a household about a mile away.

The Texas Condition Fireplace Marshal’s Place of work said in a statement that it has joined law enforcement agencies investigating the fire, but a spokesperson would present no specifics on the investigation Friday. The county sheriff has not returned a information from the AP.

The courthouse, designed from regional sandstone, was currently being geared up for renovations, so all of the county data experienced been moved out, Bearden said. He mentioned only some furnishings were in the developing.

He mentioned the firefighters “did their best” but “there was not anything at all they could actually do to maintain the flames down.”

Bearden explained the courthouse’s bell tower, which featured a clock, was ruined.

“It’s just a terrible tragedy for the persons right here in the county,” Bearden explained. “This is the focal stage in our local community, our county.”

Bearden reported officers will have an engineer test the outer partitions in hopes of inevitably rebuilding the “grand aged girl.”

Mason County has a inhabitants of about 4,300.

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