TEHACHAPI, Calif. (KERO) — A Tehachapi barn was burnt to the ground by an arsonist. The sense of safety the owners of that barn had is now shattered.
- Emma and Greg Alkire woke up late on Friday October 25 to find their barn on fire. They say the animals were let out before the fire was set.
- Since then an arrest has been made, but with the suspect out on bail the Alkires say they feel unsafe.
- They estimate the barn cost roughly $40,000 with an additional $7,000 dollars worth of equipment in there.
- To help the Alkires build their barn back you can donate to their gofundme here.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“Pure terror. Panic, I mean, just all the worst feelings that you could ever feel all at one time,” said Emma Alkire.
Emma was woken by her dog Guinness on Friday October 25 and when she looked outside she saw her barn in engulfed in flames.
“It woke me from a deep sleep, and I jumped out of bed and raced to find her coming down the stairs,” Greg Alkire, Emma's father, said.
Greg said he woke up hearing his daughter screaming her barn was on fire.
“She was frantic, panicked and still screaming as she went out the back door to see if her horses were alive or not.”
They headed from their house to the barn, and were able to find her two horses outside.
“We didn’t see the cats for awhile but we saw the horses and we calmed down a little bit,” Emma said.
Greg then called the fire department who arrived quickly and were able to stop it from spreading further.
“We were up all night, obviously it was two or three o'clock in the morning before the poor forty firemen were able to go home.” Greg said.
Since the barn didn’t have electricity, Greg and Emma said they came to the conclusion it was arson.
They believed it was Emma’s ex-boyfriend who committed the arson.
Greg told me the next day they spoke with an arson investigator with the Kern County Fire Department who told him that the ex-boyfriend had confessed to setting the barn on fire as well as setting a field on fire in the same neighborhood just a few days earlier.
The ex-boyfriend was then arrested.
“There was a moment when I heard that news that I felt relieved and I felt safe that he was going to jail,” Grag Alkire told me.
I reached out to the Kern County Fire Department and they confirmed that a man matching the name of Emma’s ex-boyfriend was arrested on October 25th and booked into Lerdo jail after being charged with two counts of arson and two counts of possession of an incendiary device and flammable liquid.
“He knew how much it meant to me if we ever had any problems we went down to the barn, that’s where I’m at,” Alkire said.
The barn was built a few years ago to give Emma her own place to keep horses.
“How long have you been riding horses?” I asked.
“Since I could, I think I was five, I was riding horses bareback already,” Emma responded.
Now 18, she trains horses for a living and says she lost roughly around $7,000 of equipment.
“I can’t even ride horses anymore.”
But that wasn’t the only thing she lost.
“What has this whole experience done to your general sense of safety?” I asked.
“It’s pretty much destroyed. That night it was 3 am and 4 am and the fireman had gone. I was like, ‘Let’s just try to go to bed to see what we could do,’ and everytime I moved and the light moved on my window I thought he was sitting on my balcony.”
Records show the suspect is no longer being held at Lerdo - indicating he has been let out on bail.
The Alkires have since hired a process server to serve the suspect a temporary restraining order and fitted their house with new security cameras.
“I don’t know how to feel safe again, I haven't slept since I found out I was released on bail on Sunday.”
The Alkire’s said they ultimately plan to rebuild the barn if they can - but say their sense of safety won’t return with the suspect out there.
They told me as of November 2nd, there was no court date set for him to face the charges against him.
“It’s horrible and they just get to walk around. He got out on bail and he’s just walking around, waiting to get pissed off again I assume and god knows what he’ll do then,” Emma said.
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