Opinion ID: 2216408
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Midtown Plaza Fire.

Text: At 3:48 a.m. on October 7, 1992 firefighters responded to a call at the Midtown Plaza office building where fire was burning through the roof. It took two to three hours to subdue the blaze. The fire had originated in a common area near a stairwell in a dead end hallway on the second floor. Once again investigators deduced arson; the primary ignition site was too burned to determine if any particular materials had been used as kindling, but trash had been used as tinder in attempt to start a fire in two other separate areas of the building. Midtown tenants had a habit of neglecting to lock the main entrance door when leaving the building at night. At his interview Hage admitted to being one block away and watching fire trucks from Hardees Restaurant where he said he had been for over two hours since leaving a nearby bar at closing time around 2:00 a.m. The State elicited testimony that it would take a little over seven minutes to walk from the bar to Hardees. Hage estimated it took him not even a half hour. Investigators believed that the fire had been burning from one to two hours before 3:48 a.m.