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Man Questioned About Wildfires
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Published: May 15, 2008
PALM BAY - Authorities have arrested a man who police said sparked a small blaze early Wednesday in a town where wildfires have gutted homes and scorched thousands of acres.
Officials were questioning Brian Crowder, 31, about that fire and larger wildfires that have found ample fuel in developments on Florida's Atlantic coast where the state has not held controlled burns to cut back vegetation.
Palm Bay Police Chief Bill Berger said he thought there is a "good possibility" Crowder would be charged with starting a small fire. He said Crowder has denied involvement with the larger fires that began Sunday.
About 20 homes have been destroyed and 140 structures damaged. Damage was estimated at $9.6 million, said Palm Bay City Manager Lee Feldman.
Officials had earlier reported 40 homes destroyed.
Efforts to contain the fires, which have burned about 15 square miles, were improving, officials said. Still, major highways in the area were being intermittently closed because of smoke and the proximity of the flames.
"We had pretty good weather last night, so the fire laid down and let us catch up a bit," said Todd Schroeder, spokesman for the Florida Division of Forestry.
A resident alerted police after seeing Crowder throw an object from his car that sparked a small fire in the woods, Palm Bay Detective Ernie Diebel said.
The object was a glass bottle containing an accelerant, Berger said.
The resident described a dark car, and officers stopped Crowder's vehicle shortly afterward. Crowder got out of his car and fled, Diebel said.
Officers tracked Crowder through the woods with the help of other residents who spotted him running past their homes, police said.
A woman who answered the phone at a telephone listing for Crowder's mother refused to speak to a reporter. According to arrest reports, Crowder has lived at various addresses in Palm Bay. Neighbors of Crowder's most recent residences, including a group home run by a church, said the homes were often rented by different people, and they knew nothing about Crowder.
Records show that he has drug, burglary and automobile theft convictions dating from 1996. He was charged Wednesday with six probation violations.
Authorities think the wildfires in Palm Bay and neighboring Malabar were set by an arsonist or arsonists. Two classic Florida phenomena have fueled the flames: rampant development and year-round growing season.
A firefighter was among the residents trying to pick through charred remains of their homes for belongings on Wednesday.
Allen Civita's three-bedroom Palm Bay home burned to the ground Monday, leaving metal bedsprings, melted wine glasses and a blackened hulk of the stove. A stranger kicked open the front door to grab photographs from the living room, kitchen and a bedroom before flames took everything, said Civita, a firefighter and paramedic for the St. Lucie County Fire District.
"Thanks to that guy, we have some pictures that were in the house of us and the kids," he said. "I don't know if he lived through it before or if he had the good common sense to think, 'These people are losing everything, let me see what I can do to make some memories for them.'"
Other, scattered fires were also reported across the state.
Almost 26,000 acres - 40 square miles - were on fire as of Wednesday evening, according to an emergency management report. Aside from fires in Palm Bay and Malabar, the majority of the fires were in Glades County.
In an area around Lake Okeechobee, about 11,000 acres had burned or were burning, but no structures had been damaged. A wildfire on the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation was burning about 1,000 acres, but winds had settled down and no structures were threatened late Wednesday.
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