Man Held in Fire at Ex-Roadhouse
A local man was arrested early Friday on suspicion of burning down a vacant building that used to house a sports bar.
Police say they arrested William Ed Nelson, 35, about 1:30 a.m. after witnesses allegedly saw him setting fire to a sofa adjacent to the former Bertha’s Roadhouse Bar, 16532 Beach Blvd.
“We don’t know what his intention was,” said Louis Ochoa of the Huntington Beach Police Department, “but the end result was that the building burned down.”
No one was in the building at the time, Ochoa said, but the structure sustained about $450,000 in damages.
Nelson was taken to Huntington Beach City Jail, where he was booked on suspicion of arson.
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