Confederate Memorial Hall Victim Of Fire Bombing By Joseph A. Ricci NEW ORLEANS, LA.—New Orleans hidden gem, Confederate Memorial Hall, was recently the victim of a crude firebomb attempt on November 9. The two perpetrators, possibly expressin dismay over the national election outcome or hoping to tie the 125-year-old museum to the current monument dispute in the Crescent City, breached a security gate at approximately 1:48 a.m. CST. Once over the gate, one of them unsuccessfully attempted to break into the building using a pair of bolt cutters on a security door padlock. With one man acting as a lookout, the other sprayed some form of an accelerant inside an old tire. H then lit a piece of what appeare to be paper (possibly treated wi a chemical) and placed it in the tire which was laid against the locked steel front doors. The two quickly made their getaway as the fire soon erupted into a
through, charring the wooden door sill and scorching the pain
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Firemen at the scene of the fire at the front door of Confederate Memorial Hall.
from the iron front door. Smoke and soot got into the building, quiring all museum display cases to be cleaned the following day. Amazingly, security camera footage showed numerous cars driving through the Museum District (Memorial Hall is bounded on
of the Camp Street structure and phoned in the fire to the New Or leans Fire Department. The Fire Department arrived on the scene at 2:14 a.m. The museum’s security monitoring service notified the Director, Patricia Ricci, at 2:35 a.m. Ricci arrived at 2:45 to find the firemen had extinguished the fire. She then inspected the dam age with NOFD and NOPD investigators. A shredded steel be was all that remained of the tir as it lay on the cracked, scorch granite. A review of security camera footage revealed that the
As the two tho lashed over the ide could claim rners on the fi nion victorious