An 18-year-old Vancouver man was sentenced Thursday to 60 days in jail and more than $256,000 in restitution for causing a fireworks-related blaze that destroyed a Felida home July 5.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Andrew A. Perez-Garcia pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court on Thursday to first-degree reckless burning. In exchange, Deputy Prosecutor Abbie Bartlett dismissed a charge of first-degree arson.
“It’s always sad to see a young life affected by something like this,” said Judge David Gregerson.
“You have the opportunity to become something else and not have this define your life,” he told Perez-Garcia.
Perez-Garcia, who was represented by Vancouver attorney John Terry, said he didn’t intend to cause the fire that destroyed the home at 100 N.W. 108th St.
“I never meant this to happen,” he said.
Perez-Garcia used a fireworks device provided by his friend, Nicholas E. McRaney, 16. Bartlett has said the cake-like device had 16 explosives and shot balls of flame.
Perez-Garcia allegedly propped the fireworks up on a rock, aimed the fireworks in the direction of the house and set off the device. The explosives ignited a shrub under the house’s eaves. The flames spread to the eaves and then to the house’s attic, causing damage throughout the house.
The tenants, Ted Crawford and Kimberly Newman, lost all of their belongings, Bartlett said. Crawford said insurance paid for only 20 percent of their monetary losses, and the couple had to find a new rental property, which costs $200 more per month.
“We have endured a huge loss, not only material things, but physically and emotionally, as well,” Crawford said in a victim’s impact statement. “There are things that will never be the same again.”
Meanwhile, the property’s owners, Corley and Nancy Wooldridge, have been rebuilding the home. The couple bought the house in 1977, have lived in it off and on and planned to retire in it, Corley Wooldridge has said. The cost of reconstruction is about $333,000. The house was insured, but the coverage didn’t cover full replacement costs, according to Wooldridge.
Bartlett said additional fireworks “activity” occurred at the residence on Jan. 3, and that incident is under investigation.
McRaney, a wrestler at Columbia River High School, pleaded guilty in Clark County Juvenile Court in December to being an accomplice in first-degree reckless burning and was sentenced to 15 days of detention and 168 hours of community service for his role in the fire.
McRaney had “accountability as an accomplice because he provided the fireworks with the intent that it be burnt,” his defense attorney, Steven Thayer, has said.
