A fire tore through the attic of a Tacoma rental estate owned by former NFL cornerback Desmond Trufant on Tuesday morning, and investigators now suspect it was intentionally set. Firefighters knocked the blaze down in roughly 20 minutes, but the home near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was left with significant smoke damage. No one was hurt.
The fire broke out at The Sunset Estate, a gated property Trufant owns and operates as a luxury short-term rental and event venue, according to The News Tribune. Firefighters were called to the home Tuesday morning after neighbors saw flames coming from the house, and the blaze was even captured on WSDOT traffic cameras positioned on the nearby bridge, as reported by KOMO News. Tacoma Fire officials said no one was inside the home when the fire broke out.
Neighbor Iaunia Taylor called 911 as she watched the fire spread, according to KOMO's reporting. Another neighbor, identified only as Thomas, told the station the blaze seemed intentional and said it could have destroyed the house within 20 to 30 minutes had crews not arrived when they did.
Evidence Points to Arson, Investigators Say
Per investigators, evidence at the scene points to arson, though fire officials have not released further details about that evidence. As Yahoo News reported, the fire spread into the attic area and took about 20 minutes to put out; the home is not a total loss, though the smoke damage inside is described as pretty significant. The outlet's report notes that Tacoma Fire said it would involve Tacoma police as part of its investigation if arson is suspected.
Investigators have not said whether the neighborhood's long-running issues with the rental property are connected to the fire, and a man was arrested Wednesday in connection with the arson and booked for investigation of second-degree arson. Neighbors told KOMO they noticed two unfamiliar vehicles parked outside the gated property, though that detail has not been tied to any suspect or motive.
A Property Long at the Center of Neighborhood Tension
The rental property has been a source of contention in the neighborhood well before Tuesday's fire. Trufant renovated the home into a rental after buying the property — the News Tribune reports it was purchased in 2017 by a Georgia-based LLC for $835,000 according to tax records, while Fox 13 Seattle has reported Trufant purchased it in 2018 and converted it after living there for a year. The News Tribune reports that Trufant and his wife rebuilt the house from the ground up, and it now markets itself for weddings, office parties, overnight stays and similar high-end events.
Neighbors have said the estate hosted three or four often noisy functions per week, bringing congestion and criminal-activity concerns to the quiet West End block. Thomas told KOMO the rental brought traffic, improperly parked cars and unwanted nighttime visitors into the neighborhood. The News Tribune reports that guests frequently parked on both sides of North 10th Street, at times making two-way travel difficult and blocking areas marked with no-parking signs.
KIRO 7 has reported that while some neighbors raised concerns about traffic, parking and privacy tied to the short-term rental's events, both the city and Trufant have maintained the property is following all applicable codes. The dispute echoes an earlier Tacoma case: the News Tribune notes that Haddaway Hall, also known as the Weyerhaeuser Mansion, drew similar complaints over loud events, parking problems and rowdy guests back in 2013, and in 2016 a Pierce County Superior Court judge ruled that frequent large events there were a dramatically incompatible use with the surrounding residential neighborhood.
For now, the cause of Tuesday's fire remains under official investigation, and authorities have not said whether it is connected to the years of friction between the rental property and its neighbors.
