Inset: Ora Wallace (Vernon County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The home on County Road SS, in Liberty, Wisconsin (Vernon County Sheriff’s Office).Â
A Wisconsin man is accused of setting his neighbor’s home ablaze during the middle of Thanksgiving Day, leaving it uninhabitable.
Ora Wallace, 67, has been arrested on suspicion of committing arson, the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release. Formal charges will be considered by Vernon County District Attorney Angela Palmer-Fisher, the agency added.
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It was around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday when the sheriff’s office’s 911 dispatch center got a report of a mobile home fire on County Road SS in Liberty, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies, the nearby Viroqua Police Department, and four fire departments and rescue crews responded.
There was no one in the house, with authorities noting that the family who resided there was “in the process of moving out” but not there at the time, according to the sheriff’s office. Firefighters put out the flames and declared the home “a total loss.”
Photos taken of the residence showed destroyed walls and charred support beams.
Investigators determined “quickly” that the fire “was set intentionally,” according to law enforcement. Investigators identified Wallace as their suspect, pointing out that he lived across the road from the home that had been set ablaze.
The defendant was then arrested and placed in the county jail.
All of the firefighters and law enforcement officers left the scene by 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving.
“I am extremely grateful that no one was hurt,” Sheriff Roy Torgerson said. “Although this should never have happened, I would like to thank everyone who responded. I appreciate our Sheriff’s Office team and all emergency services, many of which are staffed entirely by volunteers.”
“When you should have been enjoying Thanksgiving Day with your families, you answered the call to serve our community without any reservation,” the sheriff added.
Wallace is expected to appear in Vernon County Circuit Court on Monday.
Authorities have not revealed what they believe his possible motive may have been.
