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YOUNGSTOWN -- The roof and steel frame are nearly all that remain of the former Dollar Tree store at 3003 Mahoning Ave.
The building is being deconstructed in the coming weeks. Then, reconstruction of a nearly identical structure -- also a Dollar Tree store -- will go up starting in January.
An unlikely arsonist, a 5-year-old boy, sent customers and employees scrambling for the exit Sept. 24, after he wandered around the store apart from his dad, according to Kurt Wright, Youngstown arson investigator.
Surveillance video showed the fire racing up the wall in the right rear corner of the store as the father and son left the building. The damage estimate was $300,000.
The video helped Wright identify the father so that Wright could question him about the fire. The father denied that his son set the fire, and the video does not show him setting it.
But the video makes it clear that the boy was responsible, Wright said. There were no other people in the area where the fire started.