Burnet police seeking arsonist in ballpark fire

By CHRIS PORTER • Daily Tribune Staff

BURNET - Fire officials say a new thermal-imaging system may have spotted the culprits who set a blaze that consumed more than half of a Burnet Little League building Oct. 13.

Fire Marshal John Erskine - who also is president of the Burnet Little League - said his office has joined forces with the Burnet Police Department to track down those responsible for the fire, which caused $7,000 - $15,000 in damage to the 30-year-old structure at Wallace Riddell Park.

“We’re definitely going to press charges,” he said Wednesday. “It’ll be an ongoing investigation. There’s no statute of limitations any more on arson, so it could be 25 years, and if we find someone talking about it at a class reunion, we’ll still charge them.”

Erskine said several suspicious people were seen near the park - which is located across the street from the fire station - shortly before the blaze.

“It was around 11:30 Saturday night,” he said. “The firefighters were outside fooling around with a new thermal-imaging camera, basically scanning the neighborhood and tracking heat sources.”

Burnet firefighters acquired the new imager about three weeks ago.

Thermal imaging systems measure infrared radiation to form an image in visible light. Fire crews use handheld thermal imaging systems to track down unseen heat sources inside structures.

The devices can also detect the heat put off by a human body, allowing users to “see in the dark,” Erskine said.

“They had actually seen some people over in the park swinging on the swingsets at around 11 p.m.,” he said. “They couldn’t really tell who they were. All they could see were the silhouettes.”

After practicing with the thermal imager, the firefighters left for dinner, Erskine said.

“After 20 minutes or so, they got back, and the ambulance went out on a call,” he said. “They got another ambulance out of the bay at the police station across the street, and didn’t see anything suspicious at that time.”

A few minutes later, a passing motorist ran into the fire station.

“This guy came running in, saying he was with the Austin Fire Department and driving into town, and said there was a big fire across the street,” Erskine said. “The shift captain looked out the bay door, and the whole Little League building was just blazing.”

The top floor of the aging wooden structure was engulfed in minutes, he added.

“Someone decided they wanted to burn it in a relatively short amount of time,” Erskine said. “It’s pretty obvious that it’s arson. It went from nothing to a raging inferno. Your heat and your fires burn upward, but this one had a pretty good downward burn into the floor, indicating there was a puddle of flammable fluid.”

While main power to the building had been shut off for several years, Erskine said there was an alternate power line that was still feeding electricity to the structure.

“We ruled that out as the cause, though,” he said.

So far, it appears the culprits set the fire in the center of the top floor of the building. Little League officials had experienced frequent problems with break-ins and vandalism at the 30-year-old facility, Erskine said.

“Because of that, we had moved our valuables out of there a long time ago,” he said.

The fire destroyed most of the stop story of the building and damaged about half of the lower floor, Erskine said. The structure, which had seen use as a concession stand and scoring box, hadn’t been used in several years. The Little League did not have insurance for the building, he added.

“The field is primarily used as a T-ball and practice field for the younger kids,” Erskine said. “We haven’t used (the building) as a concession stand for five or six years. We were in talks with the Parks & Recreation Department about possibly razing the building and building a possible adult-sized field for the high-school aged kids that could double as a football or soccer field. That’s been tabled for a while, though.”

The ball field in Wallace Riddell Park is city-owned property, he added.

“That’s why they tore the ruined building down so quickly,” Erskine said. “Because it was on city property and the city had a certain liability, it was torn down by noon on Monday. It was in danger of falling in and hurting somebody.”

In the meantime, the loss of the building won’t affect the local Little League, which boasts about 500 players ages 5 - 14.

“We’ll still use the field,” he said. “We may put a new scoring table up, but at this point I don’t see any point in putting up any new buildings.”

Arson on city property is a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000.

Anyone with information on the fire is asked to call the Police Department at (512) 756-6404 or Crime Stoppers at (866) 756-8477.

chris@thepicayune.com

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Burnet police seeking arsonist
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