Document text
Boys confess to setting Eagle Point building fire By JULIE SWENSEN Two boys have confessed to setting a fire that destroyed an Eagle Point tax business housed in a historic building, but they told police it was not intentional. "They basically said it was an accident," Eagle Point police officer Darin May said. The boys, 10 and 14, had been using the shed attached to the tax business as a fort or clubhouse, May said. They pulled some boards off the side to get in, and were playing with a propane torch. One of them dropped it, and it set a couch cushion on fire. They tried to put it out, but it spread too fast and they ran home. Police weren't sure where the boys got the torch. The boys were charged with second-degree arson and released. The building, owned by Ron Grensky, was valued at $80,000. Ramona Kiser, a licensed tax consultant who rented the building, valued her loss at $15,000. Some residents said Wednesday that the building at 118 W. Main St. was a century old. But Barbara Hegne of the Eagle Point Museum said it was probably built about 1910, because Main Street wasn't built until then. It once was a telephone office owned by W.C. Clements, and it also was home to a post office, a utilities collection center and the Clements Lumber Company. "That's really a part of our history," Hegne said. Kiser, a licensed tax consultant with about 400 clients, hasn't had a chance yet to determine the extent of the damage to tax records. While some customers' paperwork for extensions -- some had original receipts -- were due by Aug. 15, Kiser thinks the customers will be given extensions until October. She doesn't know whether customers thought to make copies of their records before giving them to her. She said the fire is a good reminder not only to make copies of tax records, but also to get insurance coverage that pays replacement value. While Kiser had replacement value coverage, her daughter Kristy Artman did not, so depreciation will lessen Artman's insurance payout. Artman's furniture, as well as equipment and records for her bookkeeping business, were stored in the building. "I think she's really going to have some problems with paperwork, even worse than mine," Kiser said. While an accountant offered Kiser the use of his office space, she isn't sure what she will do yet. Grensky said the building will soon be torn down. He doesn't know if another building will be put up. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA