MALONE — After a structure fire involving an abandoned building along Route 11 on Thursday evening, one person was taken into custody and is now facing charges.
Jeffrey J. Soucia, 26, of Malone, was charged with arson third degree, intentional damage, and burglary third degree, illegal entry with intent to commit a crime, by state police, according to Troop B’s police blotter.
Malone Village Police Chief William T. Andre said although Soucia was charged by state police, he was located and taken into custody by village police, adding the fire was in the town of Malone but near the village line. The fire took place across the street from Bokie’s Drive In.
“Whenever a major incident like that is going on if it’s close to the village we will respond,” Andre told the Telegram, “We actually had been dealing with this guy earlier in the day for a much more benign situation. My patrols were responding to the fire call and happened to see him walking away and they went back to kind of stop him and question him about what was going on and he was subsequently arrested pursuant to that conversation.”
According to Malone Callfiremen Chief Mark Perry, first responders were dispatched to the scene shortly before 8 p.m. on Thursday.
“We had heavy fire showing out of the second floor out of the rear side of the structure,” he said.
Perry said no injuries were reported as a result of Thursday night’s fire, adding the building was an abandoned structure that previously caught fire in 2009 and has been vacant since. He said county fire police responded to the scene to help redirect traffic away from the fire.
“We shut down that section of Route 11 so there was no traffic flowing through,” Perry said.
According to Perry, crews from Burke, Constable, Westville and Chateaugay joined Malone Callfiremen at the scene. Perry said Franklin County Cause and Origin and a state fire investigator also responded to the scene and an investigation is ongoing, and crews cleared the scene of the fire around 2 a.m., Friday morning.
Last night’s fire caused heavy damage to the back section of the house, according to Perry.
“That was where the original fire had been before but it was damaged even further,” he said, “Due to the fact, for our safety, we couldn’t let our firefighters go inside and the safety of the structure after the damage from the second fire we requested the town of Malone Highway Department to come in with their excavator and we tore the structure down and put the rest of the fire out. It’s on the ground now.”