Auto shop owner arrested on arson charges in $13M Old Town Newhall fire

New details on a fire that devastated Old Town New Hall back in August. Four people have been arrested, including the owner of Gary's Auto Collision, which was destroyed in that fire. Fox 11's Gina Silva joining us live now with details of the arson arrest. Gina. That's right, Glenn. As you said it, four people were arrested and one of them was the owner of Gary's Auto Collision. It's actually the second auto shop that he's owned that's been destroyed by fire. So that raised a lot of questions with customers who were already having problems with him. When a massive fire broke out at Gary's Auto Collision in August spreading through Old Town Newhall and gutting several businesses along Main Street, customers who had their vehicles at Gary's owned by John Wright say they knew something wasn't right. I knew exactly what happened. I mean, it's so shady. This whole situation is so shady, it did not surprise me. I was like, my gosh, he burned a shop down. That was my immediate thought. They were right to be suspicious. Investigators have determined the fire was intentionally set, causing an estimated 13 million in property damage. Now, four people are under arrest in connection with the fire. Christian Leija, Jesus Figueroa, Antoinette Reese, and John Wright, the owner of Gary's Auto Collision. The arson that was committed and the countless buildings, not only historic buildings, but that was people's livelihood. So, it's just wrong. Cheyenne Serrano and Mark Haberman say John Wright had been holding their vehicles and demanding thousands of dollars before agreeing to release them. Wright denied those allegations. Why is the truck still there? And it's been over a year. I don't have authorization to share those details with you. If he's willing to share those details, that's fine. I'm not stopping from working on the vehicle. Haberman says he had already paid Wright 20,000 to repair his truck. I can fix anything. That's what he said to me. Here it is almost we're knocking on two years. And $20,000. Haberman and Serrano say they learned their customers were having the same problems with Wright. They also learned he owned an auto shop on Sierra Highway that had also gone up in flames in July of 2025. So to see a second auto shop owned by Wright go up in flames twice, they suspected insurance fraud. I'm really happy that he can't do this to anyone else. I'm also trying to figure out, or we're trying to figure out. How we're going to get the car. And that's right, Cheyenne's Tesla is still at one of John Wright's auto shops, so she is trying to figure out how to get that back. Now John Wright, he has been, will be arraigned on Monday, November 2nd, Monday morning. I'll send it back to you Glenn. All right, Gina Silva, thank you for that.