MASON, Texas (AP) – A suspect has been arrested and taken into custody after a massive fire that destroyed everything except the rock walls of a 111-year-old Texas courthouse, an official said.
The fire at the Mason County Courthouse in Mason, about 100 miles northwest of Austin, started Thursday evening. There was no one in the building. Judge Jerry Bearden of Mason County said the flames could be seen from miles away.
“At the moment it’s just a shell,” he told television station KXAN. “It just breaks your heart to look at it.”
He told The Associated Press Friday that firefighters suspect arson in both the courthouse fire and another fire around the same time in a house about a mile away.
The Texas State Fire Marshal’s office said in a statement that it has joined law enforcement agencies investigating the fire, but a spokesperson would not provide details on the investigation Friday. The sheriff has not returned a message from the AP.
The courthouse, made of local sandstone, was being prepared for renovations, so all provincial documents had moved, Bearden said. He said there was only a few pieces of furniture in the building.
He said the firefighters were “doing their best” but “there was nothing they could really do to keep the flames down.”
Bearden said the courthouse’s clock tower, with a bell, had been destroyed.
“It’s just a terrible tragedy for the people here in the county,” Bearden said. “This is the center of our community, our province.”
Bearden said officials will have an engineer check the exterior walls in hopes of eventually rebuilding the “ great old lady. ”
Mason County has approximately 4,300 residents.