DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997                 TAG: 9704040746

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   25 lines

NORFOLK MAN IS ACCUSED OF ARSON AT APARTMENTS

A 46-year-old man faces a preliminary hearing today on charges that he set fire to an apartment building, injuring a resident, authorities said Thursday.

Monte Congelton was being held in the city jail without bond Thursday night. He is charged with arson of an occupied dwelling and malicious wounding.

Jack Goldhorn, a Fire Department spokesman, said investigators arrested Congelton about 3 p.m. Thursday.

The fire, in the 9600 block of 10th View St. in West Ocean View, was reported at 2:48 a.m. March 27.

Goldhorn said there had been an argument in front of the building just before the blaze. When firefighters arrived, the front of the two-story building was engulfed in flames.

Several residents barely escaped the building, and one person suffered burns and cuts while fleeing, Goldhorn said. Firefighters worked a half-hour to control the blaze. The fire caused between $40,000 and $50,000 damage. KEYWORDS: ARSON

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