Setting Fire Because He Was Fired: Man Starts Blaze At SoFla Horse Center

A former employee at Palm Beach Downs equestrian center is facing arson charges after authorities say he confessed to setting fires at the horse-training facility.

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue responded Wednesday morning to the center on Atlantic Avenue, west of State Road 7, and found a fire in the facility’s snack bar building. The building was unoccupied and the fire was extinguished.

Investigators say 21-year-old Guillermo Rodriguez Torres told them he did it to get back at the people who were responsible for his firing a few days earlier.

Authorities say no horses or people were hurt in the blaze, but that the flames did result in about $50,000 worth of damage.

Torres, who is listed in jail records as homeless, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail following the incident.


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