Southfield Fire Destroys One Building, Damages Second
Staff Reports
NEW MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — An early morning fire Friday in Southfield damaged one building and destroyed another on Norfolk Road.
The 1800s-era single-family home at 155 Norfolk Road was destroyed and the neighboring former Baptist Church damaged. It took several hours for firefighters to contain the blaze. The fires occurred not far from the New Marlborough Fire Station.
"The house was fully involved and beyond saving," Fire Chief Charles Loring III told ABC's News10. "So we concentrated on the church, the church turned into a home. We concentrated on that and were able to save it."
The call came in around 3 a.m. and at least eight area fire companies arrived at the scene. No one was reported injured.
Video courtesy of David Edelman.
Beware the ides of March...
An inferno consumed a home in idyllic Southfield, MA early today, nearly taking with it the neighboring old Baptist Church. The latter was saved, and there were no injuries reported. Thankful for fire fighters.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A New Marlborough man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murdering his mother three years ago.
Rodney M. Ball, 38, was given a life sentence in the murder of 55-year-old Donna Agar, to be served at the Massachusetts Correctional Facility at Cedar Junction.
Appearing before Judge John A. Agostini on Tuesday afternoon, Ball pleaded guilty to single counts of murder in the second degree and illegal possession of a firearm, for which he was given a concurrent 2 1/2- to three-year prison sentence.
Ball, a lumber yard worker, had been held without bail at the Berkshire County House of Correction since first being arraigned on Agar's murder in March 2008.
Agar was found in a pool of blood at her home on Clayton Mill River Road in Southfield on the afternoon of March 16, 2008, after state police were contacted to do a wellness check after Ball drove her minivan to confront his estranged wife. Ball arrived at the scene while police were there and they found a rifle in the vehicle.
An autopsy found Agar had died from multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest and loss of blood. Ball, then living on Clark Way, told investigators his mother had killed herself.
The investigation was conducted by members of the New Marlborough and Sheffield police departments, state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office, troopers assigned to the Lee barracks and the Crime Scene Services Section of the state police.
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A New Marlborough man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murdering his mother three years ago. 