Local police have arrested a 32-year-old employee in connection with the
four-alarm fire on May 8 that destroyed a tire store and adjacent businesses in Antioch, Calif.
Police and fire investigators said the man was charged with "unlawfully causing a fire," according to reports.
Antioch Capt. Robert Marshall said Blue Star Tires employees had been using a mixture of tar and gasoline to make used tires look better. The employee who was arrested was reportedly playing with fireworks in the shop, which ignited the tar/gas mixture, setting off the blaze.
Police said that two men suffered minor injuries in the blaze, but neither was hospitalized.
Fire officials said the man was an employee of one of four businesses housed in the two buildings that caught fire – Blue Star Tires, Mt. Diablo Landscape Center, Old School Autoworks and Antioch Convertibles & Auto Upholstery.
The owner of Blue Star Tires, 66-year-old Abdul Ghafoor, told the San Jose Mercury News the man who was arrested performed occasional odd jobs off and on in recent weeks, but that he was not an employee of the shop.