GREAT BARRINGTON — A grand jury earlier this month indicted the owner of the former Wonderful Things gift shop on charges of arson and insurance fraud in connection with a fire that heavily damaged the Stockbridge Road building he owned.
East Street resident Harry H. Sano Jr. was arraigned in Superior Court in Pittsfield Tuesday afternoon, but did not enter a plea. Sano remained free on his own recognizance. No date has been set for a trial. The news was first reported in the Berkshire Eagle.
Sano was arrested on July 22 by Great Barrington police on charges stemming from the July 7 blaze at the yellow Stockbridge Road building that housed the gift and yarn shop he and his wife started in 1971, as well as four apartments upstairs. The building was empty at the time, so no one was injured in the blaze.
Authorities booked Sano for arson of a dwelling house, presenting a false insurance claim, and burning a building to defraud his insurer, Lloyd’s of London. Police Chief Paul Storti said the arrest came as part of a joint investigation by the Great Barrington Police Department, the Great Barrington Fire Department, and members of the State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s office.
The investigation concluded — and video evidence of the scene confirmed — that a silver Toyota Prius matching the one owned by Sano had arrived at the scene on the day of the fire and left two hours later.
A State Police report determined that there were multiple fires ignited on the first floor connected by “trailers” made of rope and other combustible materials and liquids. Sano had used a lit candle as a timing device that ignited the fires when the candle burned far enough down, the report said.
The building has a history of code violations and other problems, including a malfunctioning furnace that, in 2017, sent five tenants to the hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning. The building had been empty since the last of the tenants had vacated the premises more than a month before the fire.
On July 8, the day after the fire, the Great Barrington Board of Health voted unanimously to condemn the structure. Sano’s wife Deb told the board the building had been cleaned out by the middle of June, though health officials say the Sanos still had active complaints against them in housing court.
See Edge video below of the July 8, 2021 Board of Health meeting. Fast forward to 02:00 to see the discussion on 232 Stockbridge Road:
The combination of smoke damage from the fire and longstanding issues such as a festering cockroach infestation made the building uninhabitable. Windows were also broken by first responders during the fire, Health Agent Rebecca Jurczyk said at a public hearing concerning a pending correction order issued in March.
The Sanos also told the health board they had found a buyer for the building who wished to demolish it, which, as Deb Sano told the health board, “is the way it was supposed to have been.”
Harry Sano is due back in court on April 19.
