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Firefighters suspect arson at former oil company site

No oil or gas was kept in the building, which was not hooked up to electricity, a Brooksville fire captain says.

By DAN DeWITT
Published October 25, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - A spectacular fire that destroyed the offices of an abandoned oil company in south Brooksville on Friday night may have been set by arsonists, firefighters said Monday.

"This was not a small fire," said Capt. Tim Mossgrove of the Brooksville Fire Department.

"When we left the station, we could already see a big column of black smoke," Mossgrove said. And, as firefighters approached the 81-year-old building on Smith Street, he said, "we could actually see it had the whole skyline lit up."

The Fire Department, with the help of county firefighters, spent more than an hour extinguishing the fire, which consumed the wooden floors and rafters of the two-story brick building. It was once the office of S&B Go Inc., a petroleum business owned by former state Rep. Chuck Smith of Brooksville.

No gasoline or oil was stored in the building, Mossgrove said, which is one reason firefighters immediately suspected arson. Also, he said, the building was not hooked up to electricity, a common source of accidental fires.

Police Chief Ed Tincher said the fire may be related to the Sept. 19 burning of a car parked on Cook Street, several blocks from the oil company.

"We've interviewed two people who are best identified as accessories" to the car fire, said Tincher, whose department was investigating the fire with the help of the State Fire Marshal's Office. Police officers were looking for a third person who they think set both fires, Tincher said.

"There is a third party we're looking to put hands on," said the chief, who did not identify the suspect or the people he has interviewed because no arrests have been made.

Mossgrove said because a Brooksville firefighter, Donald Nichols, was treated for smoke inhalation, the charge would be more serious than simple arson. Nichols had recovered sufficiently to return to work Monday.

"God forbid we find out that this was set, because (the charge) would be arson with injury," Mossgrove said.

But Smith, the former owner, said the alleged arsonists unintentionally did a good deed: eliminating a longstanding eyesore from south Brooksville.

"It's good riddance," Smith said. "They should have let it burn until it was just completely leveled."

The site, which has been abandoned for more than a decade, was once at the center of a statewide controversy. Monitoring wells dug by the state about 15 years ago found nearly an inch of waste petroleum floating on the groundwater beneath the property.

Smith refused to pay for the cleanup or act to prevent further contamination, including putting an impervious paving beneath the above-ground tanks, according to a state environmental agency at the time. And, in 1991, he attempted to change a bill to forgive what the state called "major violations" - including his own - of petroleum contamination policies. A Times editorial called the bill the "Chuck Smith Relief Act."

But Smith said the state, by refusing to allow him an extension to lay the paving, forced him out of business and into bankruptcy.

That action also ensured that the property, now owned by John Scussel of Casselberry, would never generate enough income to allow the owner to clean up the groundwater beneath the site, Smith said.

The work still has not been done, though the state agreed to assume most of the costs in 2000. The state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman was not available for comment Monday because the Tampa office was closed due to Hurricane Wilma.

"If it was the Chuck Smith Relief Act, it failed miserably," Smith said in a 2000 interview.

--Dan DeWitt can be reached at 352 754-6116 or dewitt@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 25, 2005, 03:00:29]