FIRES AT FIRESTONE FARM

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993                   TAG: 9302090229
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONROVIA, LIBERIA                                LENGTH: Short
FIRES AT FIRESTONE FARM
The world's biggest rubber plantation, owned by the U.S. company Bridgestone-Firestone Inc., was set on fire by retreating rebels, witnesses said Monday.
One witness said she saw a charred body. A U.N. official in Monrovia said he had no information because the area is in a war zone. Fighting was between a West African force and rebels.
Trevor Hoskins, Bridgestone-Firestone spokesman at company headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., said the fires were small and were out by Monday night.
Civilian witnesses who reached Monrovia on Monday said the fire destroyed dozens of homes as well as company headquarters at the center of the rubber-tree plantation, 35 miles northeast of Monrovia.
They said no efforts were made to put out the blaze. The Nigerian-led West African intervention force, which forced the rebels led by Charles Taylor from the plantation, had no comment.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB