OCALA, Fla. — Ocala police said they’ve arrested a man who set three separate fires inside a hospital on Sunday.
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Ocala Fire Rescue crews responded to HCA Florida’s West Marion Hospital on SW 46th Court in Ocala around 7:30 p.m.
At the scene, police determined that someone started a fire at a coffee station on the fifth floor before lighting newspapers and setting fires in two restrooms on the hospital’s first floor.
Police say Daniel Holmes, 32, was also the man who tried to ignite a box of disposable face masks but failed when a hospital employee confronted him.
OPD said Holmes then threw the face masks, along with a desk phone, at the employee before leaving the hospital.
Firefighters said they were able to put out the flames in all three areas before they spread.
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OFR worked to ventilate the hospital and said no injuries resulted from the fires.
As crews extinguished the flames inside the hospital, firefighters were called to two more fires not far from HCA Hospital.
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Fire officials said one was reported at a nearby home and another in a wooded area behind Rusmussen University.
Ocala PD said a responding officer was able to match 911 callers’ descriptions of the suspect to Holmes, and arrested him in the parking lot of a nearby business.
Police added that hospital surveillance video also confirmed Holmes as a suspect.
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A spokesperson for HCA Florida’s West Marion Hospital told Channel 9 Monday morning that the hospital is open, operating as normal, and accepting patients.
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