BEATRICE – Authorities were investigating the cause of a Sunday morning home fire….and now say it was intentionally set.  Beatrice Firefighters, a state fire marshal investigator and local police went to the scene to investigate the cause of a fire that did damage to a home in the west part of the city, late Sunday morning.

Firefighters were sent to 960 West Mary, a one-story house with a two-stall garage along the north side of the street.  Authorities saw smoke rolling from the roof of the structure when police and fire personnel arrived. Fire Captain Craig Fisher says the fire originated near the rear of the garage area of the home.


"In the garage, there were three different rooms. There's a garage area, there's a middle storage area and a rear storage area. Right now, we're looking at the middle storage area as the origin of the fire. The rest of the garage and that other storage area looks pretty good. Inside the house, there's probably a little smoke damage. The fire never went into there. But from that middle room, the fire did go up into the attic. We were able to stop it from going across the rest of the attic above the living area...so we got a pretty good quick stop and knockdown on it."

Fisher said a type of accelerant had been used to start the fire, and there were signs of forced entry to the garage area. 

According to Southeast Communications Dispatch Center radio traffic, authorities were communicating with sheriff’s deputies who had contact with a person allegedly seen by witnesses running from the location, prior to the fire.  

A Nebraska Fire Marshal Investigator arrested Andres Larcen-Boria on suspicion of arson and burglary.  Beatrice Police Sergeant Brian Carver says the suspect was also cited for criminal mischief unrelated to the fire and burglary.

Andres Larcen-Boria (Gage County Detention Photo)
Andres Larcen-Boria (Gage County Detention Photo)  

The couple who resides at the home were not at home when the fire started…sending crews to the scene at 11:17 a.m.   Flames reached into the attic, but not into the living area of the home. 

Firefighters had the fire under control in about 20 minutes.