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One year after arson, area's spirit extinguished
By BRADY DENNIS
© St. Petersburg Times, RICHLAND -- The six arson fires that struck this one-block neighborhood off Old Lakeland Highway last summer burned more than metal and wood. They burned teddy bears and family photos, pets and keepsakes, leaving nothing behind but piles of ash. They extinguished a community's spirit. Residents suddenly were afraid to sleep. They no longer let their kids out to play without supervision. They started locking their doors and hiding behind them. They replaced friendliness with suspicion; waving with finger-pointing. A year later, most physical reminders of the fires have vanished. New or remodeled mobile homes have replaced the charred shells of burned ones in the neighborhood northwest of Zephyrhills. Grass has grown green in lots previously burned black as tar. But scars remain. They are in Mona Jackson's heart, if not in her home. "They destroyed my life, that's what they did," Jackson said recently. "It almost tore my family apart. It's been hard. I lost a lot in that fire." She lost three dogs. She lost her mobile home, for which she had no insurance. She lost all the toys and mementos of her young daughter's life, except for one shriveled baby picture she dug out of the rubble. The fire left Jackson and her daughter Jessica Shackleford, 8, living in a nearby motor home with no kitchen, no bathroom, no contentment. Across the street, the flames also damaged Bill Bassett's home -- twice. "It was too much to handle," said Bassett, 41. "The first one was enough. Having it done again, it was like, 'Why?' "Nobody got sleep. You just stayed up all night, looking out the window every time you heard a noise." The fires that wrecked Bassett's home destroyed all his clothes, all his furniture, his walls and windows. More important, it demolished the tangible reminders of his wife, who died three years ago from a heart attack. "I wanted to pass that stuff along to my daughter," said Bassett, whose daughter is 10. "I was heartbroken. I lost a lot I couldn't replace." Though rumors and suspicions abound, Jackson and Bassett probably won't have the satisfaction of seeing anyone prosecuted for the arsons that ruined their homes. A former neighbor, Linda Dyson, was arrested in September on charges that she torched her own home at 8619 Semmes St. on Aug. 18. She has pleaded not guilty. Dyson, who posted bail and now lives in Winter Haven, is awaiting trial this year. She could not be reached for comment. State fire marshal investigator Rex Hinkle shares the frustration. He thinks that if Dyson wasn't involved in all the fires, she at least knows who was. He said the evidence suggests there were five or six other players in the fires, which were similar. All were started while nobody was home, often minutes after the occupants left. Most were started in a back bedroom. But Hinkle sighs as he explains that the evidence and accusations he has compiled don't add up to enough probable cause to pin the other fires on anyone. "We've got a lot of hearsay, a lot of suspicions and evidence, but not enough factual stuff," said Hinkle, who every night for two months did surveillance in the neighborhood for up to six hours. "But, we're pretty confident that the person we got (Dyson) was fully responsible or at least had full knowledge it was being done." Still, he feels for the residents who must rebuild their lives, unsure of just who destroyed them in the first place. "It made everyone very cautious. It made them scared, and I don't blame them," Hinkle said. "It was pretty much a nightmare." The nightmare has eased for Bassett, who is back in his home after $17,000 in renovations. He says the neighborhood is much quieter now, and he likes it that way. His sister moved from Massachusetts and lives nearby. But peace hasn't come easy. In recent months, his father and grandfather have died. His mother has been sick. And Bassett spent several weeks in the hospital fighting a virus, which he attributed to stress from the fires. "It's been an extremely long year," he said. "I'm glad it's been a year and things are have been nice and quiet lately. The main thing has been trying to get everything back to normal." But Bassett doubts things will ever be quite the way they were. "People were more friendly then," he said. "Nobody talks to each other. Nobody socializes with anybody. Nobody is close anymore." Jackson agrees. In the 11 months since she came home to find her house in flames, she has seen the neighborhood change. Except for Bassett, most neighbors have moved out. Jackson, with help from Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative's Round-Up charity program, has put a new two-bedroom mobile home on the site of her old one. This time, she has insurance. And she has two new dogs, Frizzee and Minnie, both offspring of the ones she lost in the fire. Still, Jackson seems to long for the neighborhood she knew before the fire, the one where her daughter could play outside with no worries. "We wish things could go back to the way they used to be," Jackson said. "Used to be, we all talked and got along. Now it's quiet. Everybody just sticks to themselves." But Jackson isn't moving her family any time soon. It is her neighborhood, after all. "It's home," Jackson said. "But it will never be the same. Never."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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