Dry creek home fire deliberately set

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Investigators have determined someone intentionally lit a fire Monday night that destroyed a city-owned home in Modesto's Dry Creek Park where police last week found $1 million worth of marijuana plants, fire officials said Thursday.

Fire Battalion Chief Hugo Patino said the fire started in multiple spots, which allowed the fire to spread rapidly. No injuries were reported in the fire that started about 9 p.m. in the 600 block of El Vista Avenue, just south of Scenic Drive.

City workers had been at the house earlier in the day, boarding up and securing the house with wire mesh, Patino said. The home had been vandalized with spray paint after the recent marijuana bust. Patino said someone removed the boards and wire mesh before the fire started.

On Oct. 26, a tip from a utility crew led Modesto police to a $1 million marijuana growing operation in the home in the Dry Creek flood plain. Police arrested four men on suspicion of cultivating marijuana at the house. Officers found 560 marijuana plants and a "sophisticated" growing operation hooked up throughout the home.

The Modesto Fire Department asks anyone with information about this fire to call the Fire Investigation Unit at 491-5722.