After closing time, arson at a Lawrence nightclub

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Staff

Police in Lawrence are looking for the person who ignited a crude firebomb inside a Lawrence nightclub early today.

Around 3:15 a.m., someone carried three of the devices to the Centro nightclub on Common Street and ignited one of them, Police Chief John J. Romero said tonight.

Surveillance cameras inside and outside the club captured much of the event on film, Romero said. The film shows a person parking about 75 feet away from the club, and then carrying three 5-gallon water cooler bottles from the car to the entrance of nightclub, making three trips.

After the third trip, the person broke the front door of the club and threw the bottles inside. One ignited, sending flames out the door, and the video shows the suspect running away.

"He pretty much just barely outran the flames," Romero said.

The building was recently renovated and had a modern sprinkler system that extinguished the fire quickly. Only one bottle ignited.

"It's fortunate enough that the bottle that did ignite was right underneath a sprinkler head," Romero said.

The flames were out before police and fire departments arrived and most of the damage to the building was caused by water, he said.

The other two bottles are in police custody. Romero said they were full of gasoline, taped closed at the top, with a wick protruding from each of them.

He said the attack was not random, but police did not know the motive or have a suspect last night.

"Clearly, this establishment was targeted. We don't know why," he said.

Police are working to enhance the surveillance video and have been working with the club's owner to solve the case, Romero said.

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