Fire may have been arson

WASILLA — A fire that burned one building in a closely built collection of buildings and additions has been ruled suspicious, and possibly arson.

Right after the fire on Thursday, West Lakes Fire Department Battalion Chief Allen Swett deferred questions about why so many Alaska State Troopers had shown up to troopers or the fire marshal.

By that evening, troopers had made it clear why four of them were there.

“Investigation revealed the fire was suspicious in nature and may have been intentionally set,” according to an AST press release posted at 5:18 p.m., Thursday.

Further details were not released. An investigator from the fire marshal’s office has scheduled an appointed Monday to review the Frontiersman’s photos from the incident and interview staff. Most of those photos are available in the photo gallery accompanying this story online at frontiersman.com.

Meanwhile, the pregnant woman left homeless by the blaze is the subject of an impromptu fundraiser in the back of the Wal-Mart parking lot from noon to 3 p.m., today. Her sister, Nicole Metz, said that she’ll be there to pick up items. To see what her sister needs — like clothes, something to sleep on, etc. — visit the “Donation Drive for Tausha Hohn” page on Facbook.

“The whole donation drive started because I had put a thing on Facebook asking if people had any items,” Metz said. “It turned into a big donation drive that everybody wanted to come to.”

Metz said Hohn is staying with a friend now, but there’s a cabin on the property her sister hopes to get ready to live in for the winter.

The fire was reported just after 10 a.m. on Moose Meadows Drive in the neighborhoods off of Schrock Road near Mile 4. The home sits just past the bridge that sends Moose Meadows over the Little Susitna River. The structure visible from the street is a two-story building with a ground floor that appeared to be a shop.

In back was what appeared to be a trailer home, though by the time the Frontiersman arrived it had been more or less completely consumed by fire. A second, boarded-up trailer sat farther back on the lot and was undamaged.

The blaze in the trailer had spread to what appeared to be an addition to the shop building.

The home had belongings stacked inside that would have made an interior attack from firefighters dangerous. Luckily, they didn’t have to decide whether to go inside, Swett said on scene, because the fire had burned through the floor.

As for who started the fire, Metz suspects it was a man who showed up at the house just before it started. She said her sister turned him away — he was looking for someone who didn’t live there — and went to lay down.

“She only noticed because she heard the snapping and crackling (of the fire) and it was the neighbor across the street that called 911,” Metz said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.