Arsonist torches flower delivery van in Va. Beach

VIRGINIA BEACH

It’s been a tough month for Donis Baxter.

On Aug. 4, she lost her husband of nearly 50 years. His inurnment was a week later. And this week, someone set fire to her business’s delivery van.

The fire was reported about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday outside Baxter’s Florist and Gifts at 1920 Centerville Tnpk. in the Woods Corner Shopping Center, said Battalion Chief Tim Riley, a spokesman for the Fire Department. Someone set fire to the minivan’s passenger area, nearly destroying the vehicle, he said.

The fire is suspicious, and investigators are trying to find out who’s responsible, Riley said.

Baxter, who opened Baxter’s Florist with her husband 19 years ago, said she doesn’t know why someone would target her business. “We have no enemies here,” she said. “We’ve not had any trouble up until now.”

The van was parked outside the florist, right next to the business’s second delivery van, Baxter said. She said she’s glad the second van was unharmed, or she’d have no way to make deliveries.

Still, insurance probably won’t pay enough to purchase a new minivan, and it will be difficult to make all the deliveries with one van once the holidays arrive, Baxter said.

“We’ll manage,” she said. But “it will be difficult.”

“It was just one thing on top of the other,” she said.

The torched van, a 2001 Ford Windstar worth about $7,000, was not labeled. The one next to it has Baxter’s Florist painted on it, Baxter said.

Fire investigators ask that anyone with information on this case call (757) 385-4228. Riley said the incident doesn’t appear to be connected to nine arson fires reported in the Brigadoon neighborhood last week.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com