Saturday, March 4, 2006

Club fire ruled arson

Money from a safe and paperwork are missing, detective says

Audry Olmsted El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

Socorro police officers are investigating a fire Wednesday morning at the Eagles Club as arson.

Socorro Police Detective Angel Garcia said officers are working with the state fire marshal and with the New Mexico Gaming Commission to determine the cause of three separate fires inside the club's building on North California Street.

Garcia said the fires were started in the gaming room, a closet that serves as a surveillance room and a safe.

Socorro Fire Chief Joe Gonzales said firefighters received a call a little after 8:40 a.m. from a city worker that there had been a water leak at the club that may have started an electrical fire. The report was that the building was filling with smoke.

Gonzales said when the firefighters arrived, they did not find smoke but found water on the floor of the building and evidence that there had been a fire in storage closet under a stairwell.

The fire chief said that it appeared the fire had melted a PVC pipe that caused the water leak. The leaked water actually put the fire out before firefighters arrived.

The fires caused minimal damage to the building and it was more smoke than anything else in the building, Garcia said.

No one was inside the building when police and fire units arrived.

The detective said an undetermined amount of money was missing from the safe at the Eagles Club and that paperwork that was to be turned into the state gaming commission was also missing.

Garcia said police were able to retrieve a surveillance tape in a VCR from the closet.

"I think the tape used in the VCR is salvageable," he said.

Personnel at New Mexico Tech, he said, have the tape and are helping to determine if the tape will be useable.

The keys to the club were turned back over to the club's board of trustees late Thursday afternoon.

"We're following up on all leads to the case," the detective said.

Garcia said he could not comment further on the case, other than to say an accelerant was used in the fires.

Board trustees for the Eagle's Club could not be reached for comment.

aolmsted@dchieftain.com

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