The Rochester Fire Department’s Arson Task Force has charged a 47-year-old city man with 4th degree arson for setting a fire in an apartment building at 253 North Clinton Avenue.
Investigators say Christopher Maurice Smith allegedly damaged the gas line to his kitchen stove, causing natural gas to flow into a vent shaft in the 11-unit building. Firefighters extinguished a fire in the shaft and there was no explosion. Nobody was hurt.
Smith is in jail awaiting arraignment.