YOUNGSTOWN — An incredibly clear surveillance video from a camera mounted on the Soso’s Club bar captures a man covered in a hooded sweatshirt walking calmly to the front of the bar around 1:45 a.m. Saturday, using an accelerant and setting an extraordinary blaze.

He fled the way he arrived, traveling back north on North Avenue and then onto Rayen Avenue.

The Youngstown Fire Department released the video to the public Tuesday with the hope that someone would recognize the man, whose face is never seen in the video. The man was carrying a clear water-type bottle.

The fire destroyed the popular club at 232 North Ave. next door to the F.D. Mason Funeral home, at the corner of North Avenue and Rayen Avenue, just west of downtown and Youngstown State University. No one was inside at the time of the fire.

A Youngstown police officer spotted the fire first and called it in at 1:47 a.m., a short time after the club closed, said Kurt Wright, Youngstown fire investigator.

When firefighters arrived, they found the front doorway on fire. They forced open the front door and found that the fire extended into the building and extinguished it.

Firefighters then tried to get onto the second floor but could not find the stairwell. A hole was created into the second floor from outside, and a hose was extended there to “knock down any fire they could see,” according to a Youngstown fire report.

Extra companies of firefighters were called to assist.

Firefighters got someone associated with the club on the phone, and they advised there were no stairs to the second floor. A decision was made not to continue to fight the fire and “let the building go because it wasn’t safe at this point for firefighters to enter the bulding,” the report states.

Firefighters used water to protect the funeral home, Wright said. The stairs had been removed during a renovation, the fire department learned later.

One firefighter injured his knee. The value of the building was listed at $20,000 and $5,000 in contents.

Wright said the club had been a popular place for decades, and its reputation was that it was laid back.

He noted that individuals connected to the funeral home apparently owned the building and leased it to the operators of the tavern. There apparently was no insurance on the building that would pay for the fire damage, Wright said.

A reward is available for anyone providing information leading to an arrest and conviction.

The numbers to call are 330-742-8911 or 330-782-0055.

erunyan@vindy.com