Fire that gutted Lebanon house ruled arson

LEBANON - An investigator with the state Fire Marshal’s Office said on Tuesday that the Champion Street home gutted in a fire last month was the site of an “elaborate” pot-growing operation, and the blaze that destroyed the house was deliberately set.

Daniel Young, lead investigator in the case, told The Lebanon Voice that once investigators ruled out an accidental cause due to faulty wiring with the pot-growing equipment, which included special lights and a generator, the fire was officially ruled an arson.

He said there are no suspects in the case, but investigators have interviewed a number of individuals and intend to interview several more.

He said they have been in contact with the owner of the house as well as the renter.

The Maine DEA has been contacted and is also actively involved in their end of the case.

The early morning blaze on June 22 appeared to have originated in the rear of the house, which was not the area of the pot-growing operation, Young said.

He would not say whether an accelerant had been used, stressing that the investigation was ongoing and the case very fluid.

More than 30 firefighters from several surrounding communities tried to save the house after a neighbor called in the fire around 2:30 a.m.

Young would not comment on the size of the pot-growing operation or whether the arson may have been the result of some type of dispute over the drug operation. As of now we simply don’t know, he said.

The former graffiti house, strewn for decades with the political rhetoric of the late Clarence "Clabby" Tanner of Lebanon who formerly lived there, was sold to the new owners a couple of years ago.

The former clapboard house had been sided in recent years and appeared to have been kept tidy.