Arrest Made in '01 Phoenix LODD

(AP) PHOENIX - A soldier based in Texas has been arrested in the 2001 death of a firefighter who died while battling an arson fire at a west Phoenix supermarket, Fire Capt. Willie Nelson said Monday.
Christopher Benitez, 26, was arrested Saturday at Fort Hood, Texas, on suspicion of murder and arson of an occupied structure.

He is accused of igniting cardboard boxes behind the Southwest Supermarket, starting a fire that jumped to the store and spread through the attic as firefighters worked below. Eight-year veteran firefighter Bret Tarver, 40, was killed in the blaze.

Benitez was being held without bail at the Bell County Jail in Texas. An automated telephone system at the jail said Benitez did not have an attorney on file, and attempts to request an interview with him late Monday were unsuccessful.

Tarver died after he became disoriented in thick smoke that made it nearly impossible to see, investigators said. Fellow firefighters pulled his body from the store shortly before the building collapsed.

The county medical examiner's office said Tarver died of burns and smoke inhalation.

An anonymous tip two years ago led investigators to Benitez, who made comments that placed him at the scene of the fire, said Nelson, the case's lead investigator.

Nelson said Benitez may have been angry that he was arrested for stealing beer from the supermarket days before the fire. Authorities are also investigating Benitez's cousin, who Nelson said may have been with Benitez when the fire started.

"This has been a great step for us in bringing closure to such a tragic event that affected so many people," Nelson said.

Officials at Fort Hood and the Pentagon couldn't immediately be reached to confirm that Benitez is enlisted or provide his rank.

Fire officials said at the time that Tarver's death exposed weaknesses in the city's fire-training program, which they said focused too much on small residential blazes and didn't prepare firefighters for large commercial fires.

Crews are now building a library on the land where Tarver died. His death has haunted firefighters for eight years.

"These fire investigators weren't going to give it up," said Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan. "They followed it through to the end."

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