FIRE CALL LEADS TO HOLLYWOOD HOUSE'S MARIJUANA STASH

Hollywood firefighters extinguishing a fire found more than just smoke
in a Hollywood house Monday afternoon.

After firefighters put out the fire, which was shooting through an
attic above the kitchen just before noon, rescue workers smelled
marijuana wafting from two rooms, one partially blocked by a fake
wall, in the home. In the rooms, they found a hydroponics lab filled
with about 250 adult plants, some 6 to 7 feet tall, Hollywood Police
spokesman Capt. Tony Rode said.

Police seized the lab equipment and plants, which had a street value
of about $300,0000, Rode said.

Illegal and dangerous electrical wiring that fed into the house seems
to have caused the fire, Rode said. Florida Power & Light Co. workers
shut off electricity to the home.

No one was in the house at the time of the fire, and the house
appeared to be uninhabited, Rode said. No furniture was found in the
single-family home.

Police are trying to determine who owns the house, which is in the 600
block of North 31st Avenue, and if the owner may have rented the home
to the person growing the marijuana. The investigation is ongoing,
Rode said.