2008 Fire
The mansion was partially destroyed by a four-alarm fire during the early morning of June 8, 2008. Current Texas Governor Rick Perry and his wife Anita Thigpen Perry were in Europe at the time of the fire. They had relocated in October 2007 for a $10 million major deferred maintenance project that began in January 2008. The project was to include a fire suppression system. State Fire Marshal Paul Maldonado said the next Sunday that investigators had evidence that an arsonist targeted the 152-year-old building.
On February 2, 2011, Chief Tony Leal, an assistant director of the Texas Rangers, announced that a person of interest has been identified that is connected to an Austin-based anarchist group which has also been linked to an attack (involving Molotov cocktails) which was planned for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul during September 2008. An official close to the investigation said agents determined the fire was a criminal act "after reviewing footage from security cameras." A restoration was begun, with a scheduled completion in 2012. The Perrys moved back into the Governor's Mansion on July 18, 2012.
Read more about this topic: Texas Governor's Mansion
Famous quotes containing the word fire:
“Not till the fire is dying in the grate,
Look we for any kinship with the stars.
Oh, wisdom never comes when it is gold,
And the great price we paid for it full worth:
We have it only when we are half earth.
Little avails that coinage to the old!”
—George Meredith (1828–1909)