MEXICO – Sunday morning’s garage fire at 53 Roxbury Road may have been set to cover a crime, state fire investigator Chris Stanford said Thursday morning.
“This was an incendiary fire after what appears to be a burglary and theft of contractor tools,” Stanford said of Sunday’s 6:30 a.m. blaze.
The two center bays of the four-bay garage behind a four-story apartment building were rented by Joseph Patneaude from building owner Mark Ross, Stanford said.
Soon after the fire was extinguished, Patneaude told Mexico firefighters that he was missing some nail guns, but didn’t yet know if anything else was gone. Mexico Patrolman Jeff Stoddard, who was investigating the incident for the police, said Thursday morning that Patneaude had yet to provide him with a complete list and serial numbers of the missing tools.
Patneaude “said he was going to check and see if someone had borrowed them, so he couldn’t verify then that the tools were stolen,” he added.
“I’ll be on the case as soon as there is a case, and as soon as I’ve got something to investigate,” Stoddard said.
Stanford said the fire was set at a bench in the nearly empty bay closest to the apartment building and adjacent to the Patneaude bays. But, he added, he is baffled by the lack of incendiary evidence and there is nothing in that immediate are that could spontaneously combust.
“Most arsonists aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, but there, everything in the area is completely gone,” he said.
He did find some pieces of newspapers and a paper bag of books, but there were no natural heat sources in the bay, and no matches or lighters left behind.
“There was even no apparent indication of ignitable liquids. Usually, you would see a little rainbow of discolorations on the floor where it would pool, but there’s nothing,” Stanford said.
He did collect evidence to be processed in the state crime laboratory. But, in the meantime, Stanford said he would continue canvassing the neighborhood and interviewing people, hoping to catch a break.
“Once again, I’ve run into a situation where nobody saw anything. The residents had no idea of what was going on,” he said.
Sunday’s fire had those similarities and others to a fire set next door in the cellar at the base of stairs at 51 Roxbury Road, also known as Route 17.
“There were no heat sources with that one, too, but I can’t say yet that it is related,” Stanford said.
“That’s the challenge of being a fire investigator. You have a fire that burns up the evidence, and firefighters that don’t always make the right decisions about not handling possible evidence,” he said.
Ross, the building’s owner, had not been at the garage for more than a year, said Stanford. Ross also owns Lazarou Motors Inc., and the Chicken Coop Restaurant, both on Main Street in Mexico.
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