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Official: Fire at Texas Governor's Mansion may have been politically motivated EMILY RAMSHAW FLASHBACK: Suspicion Surrounds Governor's Mansion Fire AUSTIN – The arsonist who set the fire at the Texas Governor's Mansion this month may have been politically motivated, the state fire marshal said Monday. He also offered a $50,000 reward for information about the crime. Meanwhile, a lawyer for a state troopers' professional group said the 152-year-old mansion was routinely patrolled by two on-duty officers, but that only one was there the night of the fire. The property's infrared motion detector system was undergoing repairs at the time of the blaze, he said. "No dereliction of duty on the party of any trooper" led to the four-alarm blaze June 8, said Don Dickson, attorney for the Texas State Troopers Association. "How many uniformed officers should it take to cover an empty house?"
(Article continues below) Officials with the Department of Public Safety declined to comment on security staffing at the mansion. The pre-dawn fire, which started on the mansion's front porch, quickly gutted the house while it was in the midst of extensive renovations. Gov. Rick Perry and first lady Anita Perry have been living in an Austin-area rental home during the repairs; they were on a trade mission in Europe at the time of the fire. State Fire Marshal Paul Maldonado said Monday that investigators aren't ready to release video surveillance footage from the night of the fire. But he said it shows a white man who appears to be in his 20s scaling a barricade wall and hurling an incendiary device onto the mansion's front porch. The device erupts into a fireball. Mr. Maldonado said it's possible the arsonist may have been angry at the governor or the state over some action, such as the use of the death penalty or even the mansion renovations. "It is likely that feelings of anger may have motivated his crime," Mr. Maldonado said, though he declined to answer questions about whether there was specific evidence. It's unclear what – if any – political links investigators are considering.
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