Arguments Heard In ‘Bubba’S’ Arson Trial Prosecutor Says Flammable Liquid Was Poured On Floor

The fire that destroyed Tom “Bubba” Biss’ popular steakhouse in Almira either was an insurance-inspired arson or an accidental blaze fueled by decorative oil lamps, attorneys told jurors Thursday.

Deputy Lincoln County Prosecutor Clark Colwell said in his opening statement of Biss’ first-degree arson trial that evidence would show the fire was “a pour,” started by flammable liquid poured on the dining room floor. Table tops remained intact while their undersides burned.

Biss, 46, remained in the restaurant after hours to drink on the night of the fire in February 1997 - as he did on most other nights, Colwell said. He theorized that Biss may have started the fire that night because he was depressed about his pending divorce and as a means of unloading a “white elephant” and paying debts.

The fire also may have been a means of spiting Biss’ wife, who had been a partner in the restaurant, Colwell said. The fire occurred on her birthday.

Colwell said Biss was probably in a drunken “stupor” that may have made the flawed plan seem sensible.

About the only part of the theory Biss’ attorney Jeffry Finer agreed with is that Biss habitually drank heavily after hours at the restaurant.

Finer said the fire apparently started in the kitchen area, where the blaze burned through the roof, not in the dining room. He said the fire may have been spreading to the dining room when a volunteer firefighter shot water through a dining room window and knocked over one of 16 to 20 oil lamps that were kept on the tables.

Biss had only a few hundred dollars in delinquent bills and had a busload of customers scheduled to come for Valentine’s Day the following week, Finer said. The pending divorce was old news by that time, and Biss had just extracted himself from a Brewster, Wash., restaurant so he could concentrate on his successful “Bubba’s” steakhouse in Almira.

Customers from all around the region were flocking to the distinctive restaurant in an old building in the little wheat town 70 miles west of Spokane, Finer said.

“You won’t have evidence of a financial situation that would call for anything drastic,” Finer said.

But Colwell said Biss’ sworn statements to insurance investigators didn’t square with facts established by telephone records and witnesses who saw Biss at the restaurant shortly before the fire broke out. Biss was “adamant” that he left the restaurant between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m., but telephone records show he called a woman in Soap Lake seven minutes after midnight and told her he was “very upset with the business and with his wife,” Colwell said.

After he came under suspicion of arson, Biss asked someone whether he could be charged with arson if he didn’t file an insurance claim, Colwell added.

Finer said Biss was wrong about the time he left the restaurant, but he made no attempt to deceive investigators. Biss gave the wrong time, but told investigators he was watching a television show that didn’t start until 11:30, Finer said.

The case is expected to go to the jury next Wednesday or Thursday.