Volunteers help clean up Tooele fire victims’ homes: ‘They’ve lost hope'


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TOOELE — Two weeks after an arsonist burned down 10 homes in Tooele, there are plenty of leads but no arrests.

Both police and volunteers are searching for answers but don’t know if they’ll find anything.

“We’re looking for anything of potential value,” said volunteer Rob Lee.

Lee is the executive director of the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team in Utah and Idaho. They're spending time in Tooele cleaning up debris from the homes lost in the fire two weeks ago.

“And then we’re just putting it on the side so the homeowners can look at it,” Lee said.

They've found a few items for the homeowners, but for the most part, it's gone.

“As you can see here, they’ve lost everything,” he said. “They’ve lost hope and so doing this helps them because they got to get this all cleaned up before they can get it adjusted by the insurance and everything.”

That's only if they have insurance. While these volunteers are doing their work, Tooele police detectives are still trying to figure out who started the fire.

“It was really devastating,” said Tooele Police Cpl. Tanya Turnbow. “We’ve had tips come in from the public. We are following up, all of our detectives are following up on all of those leads that come in."

Volunteers from Utah and Idaho are helping fire victims clean up debris while police continue to search for the suspect. (Photo: KSL-TV)
Volunteers from Utah and Idaho are helping fire victims clean up debris while police continue to search for the suspect. (Photo: KSL-TV)

The night after the fire, police questioned a man and arrested him on charges not related to the fire. He was later released from jail and the search is still ongoing.

“We just want people to remember it’s an active investigation, so we still want those (tips) to come in,” Turnbow said.

Even though almost everything was lost, there is still a lot of support from the community. People are signing their names and leaving notes of encouragement on posters in front of destroyed homes. Still, not even justice can change what happened there.

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“It can happen in a heartbeat, like for these folks,” Lee said. “They were probably enjoying an evening and then within a minute, things are going out of control and lives are devastated.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 435-882-5600 or by texting TOOELETIP7101 plus a message to 274637 (CRIMES).

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