A historic Raleigh venue, known for art and local music, was destroyed by fire last week. Eva Marie Torrellas, 59, was arrested and charged with felony burning of an unoccupied commercial structure, according to CBS 17. The House of Art, a cultural hub hosting events was damaged in the fire early on Tuesday last week, Raleigh fire officials said.
Surveillance footage from the venue, located at 306 E. Hargett Street, surfaced showing a woman approaching the front porch before leaving shortly before the emergence of a red-orange glow and smoke, as captured in the video shared with CBS 17.
Torrellas, who has a prior arson conviction in New York, according to court documents cited by WRAL, was placed in the Wake County Detention Center under a $250,000 bond with her first court appearance scheduled for tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.
A benefit concert was held at Pour House Music Hall to raise funds for rebuilding the venue. Xavier Skinner, a resident DJ at House of Art, said in a statement to abc11, "House of Art is the foundation, but the community came together to show that, 'hey, we can help rebuild the House of Art. Hey, this is not going to stop us right here.'"
In response to the arrest, Sazi Sessoms, who organized the concert and ran the venue before the fire, spoke about the situation. "Finding out the news was super devastating to us. But honestly, we've been receiving an outpouring of love from our community. So that's been an amazing thing within itself," Sessoms said in an interview with abc11.
