Orlando Sentinel
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — Travis Michael Pierce — a former volunteer firefighter — was released from a Pennsylvania prison just over two years ago after serving time for arson.
Now the 27-year-old man sits in the Seminole County Jail on charges that he torched the empty clubhouse of a closed Altamonte Springs golf course earlier this month.
“This is a case of great police work on our behalf and the state Fire Marshal’s Office,” said Lt. Robert Pelton of the Altamonte Springs Police Department.
Pierce — who was already on probation for the fires in Lancaster County, Pa. — tried twice to set ablaze the clubhouse of the old The Links at 434 golf course. The first fire was set Jan. 1 near the front door of the clubhouse, according to the state Fire Marshal’s Office. Investigators said Pierce then extinguished that blaze.
On Jan. 4, he returned to the clubhouse again just after 3:30 a.m. to set the second fire in a utility closet using paint thinner he found in the building, according to reports.
While responding to the fire, police officers saw Pierce wearing a camouflage jacket, a hat and dark pants watching the blaze while standing at the corner of West Town Parkway and Laurel Street, reports said.
Pierce started to walk away as he kept looking at the fire, police said. He told officers that he lives in an apartment complex on Douglas Avenue — more than two miles away — and was walking to a nearby Wal-Mart to buy milk for his mother.
“But he pointed in the opposite direction of the Wal-Mart,” Pelton said.
When Pierce was taken into custody, officers found he was carrying a pair of gloves, two lighters, a flashlight, a knife and an aerosol can. He also reeked of smoke, according to reports. Investigators said Pierce later confessed to setting the fires.
Pierce is charged with two counts of arson and burglary to an unoccupied structure for the Altamonte Springs fires. He is being held on $30,000 bond and faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
The Links at 434 golf course, off West Town Parkway, closed several years ago.
In 2009, Pierce was sentenced to prison in Lancaster County, Pa., for setting three barns on fire and then helping put them out as a volunteer firefighter with the Robert Fulton, Pa., Fire Company. He served two years and three months before being released on parole, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. After violating his parole in 2012, he served another year and five months before he was released again in October 2013.
It’s not clear when Pierce moved to Altamonte Springs.
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