Fry Street Fire

On June 28, 2007 the Historic Fry Street area of Denton, Texas was burned down. The area referred to as "Fry Street" is the area between Fry St/Welch St and Oak St/Hickory St. The Tomato, a local pizza place frequented by University of North Texas and Texas Womans University students, was the primary target damaged by the fire but the entire block was demolished by police and firefighters before the next morning. The fire took place the day before the scheduled date for the building's demolition. The area had been at the center of a contentious battle between Save Fry Street and United Equities Inc.

Background

Houston based developer United Equities Inc. bought most of the commercial lots on and around Fry Street, with plans to raze them in exchange for “upscale” businesses including the anchor store for the project, a CVS Pharmacy.On May 10, 2006 word began to spread around town of the purchase, and students began to organize a group called Save Fry Street with flyers and the Internet. Protests by residents and current and former University of North Texas students angered by plans to raze and redevelop the area began and would last over a year until the fire.

The Tomato restaurant closed on May 13, 2007 along with Bagheri’s Italian Restaurant, Java Flakes, Texas Jive, Naranja Cafe, the Spirit Station and Andy’s Hair Spot. On June 22–23, Habitat for Humanity of Denton County hosted an auction of building materials salvaged from buildings slated for demolition. Overnight, vandals defaced a 1980s-era mural, portions of which had been auctioned off for $1,600. On June 25, workers began to clear the buildings, ripping out the insides. Local protesters began to squat inside the emptied-out Tomato, despite the organization "Save Fry Street" asking protesters not to do so.

The fire

The Fry Street Fire was set around 11 p.m. Hundreds of students were at the bars in the area, and watched the fire. More students gathered after the news had reached them. The 22-year-old man accused of torching The Tomato in protest of the redevelopment surrendered to fire marshals and posted bail on July 11, 2007.

Bohemia Rising: The Story of Fry Street DVD Compilation

In 2007, Christopher Largen produced and directed The Burning of Fry Street, an award-winning documentary about an arts community protest that evolves into arson and economic terrorism.

In May 2006, the 100-block of Fry Street was purchased by United Equities, a Houston-based real estate company, which announced that several of the historic buildings would be demolished to accommodate a corporate strip center. A grass roots effort by the non-profit organization Save Fry Street was unsuccessful in preventing the development.

In June 2007, Largen arrived on Fry Street, hoping to obtain demolition process shots, when he discovered that activists had seized the gutted building that housed The Tomato Pizza. Largen decided to stay and keep filming, conducting interviews with dozens of people, including James Taylor Moseley, a local activist and musician who chained himself to The Tomato for three days.

Largen captured the building on video while it burned in a raging arson fire on June 27, 2007. Afterwards, Denton arson investigators acquired Largen's camera, and his video footage was used as crime evidence to obtain a warrant for Moseley, who was arrested and accused of setting the fire. Largen's footage was also utilized by Moseley's attorney to build a defense. The footage was thus considered both incriminating and exonerating.

During the investigation, detectives turned up evidence of an incendiary device placed in the burned building, set to detonate several hours after the arson blaze. Police searched the home of one of the activists (not Taylor Moseley) who supposedly had a background working with demolition technology, but they could not find enough physical evidence to get an arrest warrant for the activist.

Once Largen's camera was returned to him, he entered the editing studio and focused on transforming three days of footage into a cohesive film. In the meantime, local activists toppled construction fences and scattered bluebonnet seeds on the scorched Fry Street property, hoping to force United Equities to seek special permission to bulldoze the state flower of Texas.

The completed film, The Burning of Fry Street, won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at Thin Line Film Festival. During the festival, a mysterious firebomb was set to blow up the festival headquarters, almost killing several people and destroying the raw footage from the film. Arson investigators believed the perpetrator(s) may have been angered by the release of The Burning of Fry Street. Denton Record-Chronicle did not report the incident, for fear of inspiring "copycat" attacks.

The Burning of Fry Street received critical acclaim among underground film aficionados, and is included in the extensive 2008 DVD compilation, Bohemia Rising: The Story of Fry Street. The compilation chronicles the weeklong demonstrations, arson of The Tomato Pizza and aftermath, and includes the live music video ("The Denton Polka") Largen directed for the Grammy award-winning ensemble, Brave Combo.

As of today's date, nobody was ever indicted or formally charged with the arson blaze that consumed The Tomato Pizza. The crime remains unsolved.

Save Fry Street

Save Fry Street is a group of concerned citizens who mobilized to try to stop the demolition of Fry Street. This is part of their mission statement, which is available online:

We are not against improvement, or even growth. But we are against the destruction of a historical cultural center of Denton–one with deep roots in the college community. A large percentage of Denton is made up of small, local stores and restaurants. Many tenants of Fry Street have wanted repairs to the buildings but found the landlord unwilling to maintain the general upkeep required. Most had to rely on themselves to improve their rental property. We want improvement, but don’t need demolishing.

Norah Jones, Grammy Award-winning artist, was named the Honorary Chairwoman of Save Fry Street on December 21, 2006.

Role of the Internet

Video and pictures of the Fry Street Fire were on the Internet within 3 hours of the fire starting. Popular sites such as MySpace.com and YouTube.com were used to spread the footage to more people. YouTube Video