Another arson in V.M. Ybor area under investigation

A new arson today in V.M. Ybor is at an old address – one where five prior arsons happened within the past two years.

Firefighters responded shortly after midnight to the blaze at 1412 E. 21st Ave. The home was engulfed in flames, but they got the fire under control in about 40 minutes. No one was injured, and an investigation is ongoing.

A spate of arsons in the V.M. Ybor neighborhood bedeviled residents for more than a year. A task force concluded that of the 27 blazes in the neighborhood near Ybor's historic district, three were caused by human error or lightning. The others occurred at 16 properties, most of them vacant.

There has been one arrest in connection with those arsons, which stretched from February 2008 through June 2010. That arrest was connected to a blaze at the same location where the fire occurred overnight – 1412 E. 21st Ave.

The suspect in the five previous arsons there remains in jail. But police and firefighters said they have no reason to believe there's a new serial arsonist in V.M. Ybor and they don't believe today's fire has anything to do with the previous five at the home.

"We'd like to know just as much as you do why this home has been set on fire six times," police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said. "But you also have an element of people living in that home or squatting in that home and sometimes they use fire for electricity, sometimes they use fire for heat. So that's definitely an option."

Police said in July 2010 that they considered Kenneth Brian Smith a suspect in 13 fires within the neighborhood. But he was charged with only one count of first-degree arson. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in jail, being held on $50,000 bail.

Smith, 44, had lived in a rear efficiency apartment at the 21st Avenue home but was evicted, arrest records show. He owes money to the property owner there, Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said last year.

Police said today's arson had differences from the other five, including the fact that it started in a shed and then spread to the home.

Today's fire caused $50,000 damage; the home was valued at $30,521 last year, property records show.

"It's damaged to the point where it's a total loss," Tampa Fire Capt. Lonnie Benniefield said. "The walls have not collapsed, but the house is not livable. Of course, it was a vacant house to begin with."

Investigators have said they believe some prior fires in V.M. Ybor were set as insurance scams – six of the properties were purchased at inflated prices – and forwarded those cases to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

In May, Reginald Gray was arrested on two counts of arson in connection with a May 21 blaze that damaged properties at 1713 E. Columbus Drive and 1717 E. Columbus Drive. Investigators said Gray doesn't like the homeless and had set six fires in or around V.M. Ybor to drive out homeless people; he has not been arrested in connection with the other fires.

Gray remains in jail, where he is being held on $60,000 bail.

V.M. Ybor is bounded by 26th Avenue, Interstate 275, Interstate 4 and 15th Street.

Kim Headland, president of the V.M. Ybor Neighborhood Association, sighed with frustration today about having another arson in her neighborhood.

"I just don't know what to say at this point," she said. "We're really tired and growing really weary to talk about arsons in our community. And I think it speaks volumes about high vacancy rates in the downtown core. The longer these arsons seem to persist, the more it impacts our property values negatively, the less of a tax base there is."

Warren Weathers, deputy chief for Hillsborough County's property appraiser's office, said the V.M. Ybor area is among the county's heaviest hit in terms of the percentage of property value decline in recent years. But Weathers said he believes that swoon is more about foreclosures and the recession than it is about blazes.

Arsons, he said, might hurt home values "in the very immediate turn," he said. "But if you ask the average person on the street about the arsons, they'd say, 'I didn't know about it. I've never heard that.' "

Peterson Vilbrena, 15, lives next door to the damaged home and said the fire damaged his own home's garage and back gate.

"My mom was worried," he said. "The person who did this could've killed us."

The blaze happened quickly, he said, leaving everything "all melted and gushy."

Neighbor Amy Bradley woke up to police knocking on her door and telling her to get out.

"Of course I fear for my kids in the neighborhood, because there's someone on the loose that sets houses on fire and it's right behind my house," she said.

Oscar Gutierrez, who runs a nearby lawnmower repair shop, is afraid that at some point a fire at the home will spread to his business.

"I'm worried because one of these days it's going to catch up with me," he said.