Florida Man Stores Antiques; Cabin Burns

GROVELAND, Fla. --

Fire marshals say a man set his own half-million dollar log cabin home on fire and he might have gotten away with it, but investigators say his own greed did him in.

Hugh Britton had stored some expensive antiques in a storage shed before the fire, then he told his insurance company to pay for them. That's what convinced investigators that the fire in the log cabin on Empire Church Road in Groveland (see map) in March was an arson.

Investigators say, months prior to the fire, Britton made an insurance claim for severe termite damage to the house. Shortly after that claim was denied, detectives say he burned the place down.

A man's home is his castle, but arson investigators say 43-year-old Hugh Britton destroyed his castle to collect more than $500,000 in insurance money.

"They think they're clever, but obviously there's always trails," State Fire Marshal Arnie Amoros said.

Britton's giant log cabin burned to the ground on March 16. He told investigators the place was under repair and he accidentally left some power tools plugged in shortly before the fire.

Detectives took lots of pictures after the blaze, including snapshots of some expensive antiques stored in a garage next to the house.

"We found out that later on, some of the property that we photographed he had claimed as being burned in the fire," Amoros said.

It was property that was part of Britton's insurance claim. Detectives say it all adds up to arson and both Britton and his wife Mary are charged.

"I would prefer my 15 minutes of fame, if there is such a thing in life, to not come from my freaking house burning down," Hugh Britton told Eyewitness News the morning after the March 16 fire.

Arson investigators say he just got another 15 minutes.

"It's, uh, a different fame now, I guess," Amoros said.

Arson investigators still aren't sure how the fire was started. They're still working on that.

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