Fires at Raleigh home remain under investigation
Fire tore through a house at 4037 Patriot Ridge Court in Raleigh early Monday, the second fire at the house in the past 48 hours. Both fires appear to be suspicious.
Posted — UpdatedBut Raleigh Fire Marshal Kendal Hocutt said Tuesday there was no chance that the latest fire, at 4037 Patriot Ridge Court, re-kindled from the first fire at the home just before 10 p.m. Saturday.
Monday's fire happened sometime before 1:45 a.m., when a neighbor saw smoke and called 911.
According to court documents, police searched the home on Sept. 15, after smelling marijuana, and seized 117 plants totaling more than 215 pounds.
Jorge Luis Velazquez, 41, who is listed as living at the Patriot Ridge Court address, was subsequently arrested on two counts of trafficking in marijuana and a count of maintaining a dwelling for trafficking.
He has since been released from jail on a $75,000 bond and is due in court next week.
Hocutt said Tuesday that investigators also found evidence of a marijuana-growing operation in the burned-out home, which has been declared a total loss.
Neighbors, who declined to identify themselves, said they've seen people coming and going from the house but did not think anyone lived there.
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