June 29, 2021
HANFORD, Calif. (KSEE) – According to the Hanford Police Department, felony charges of arson have been submitted to the Kings County District Attorney’s Office after surveillance video showed 37-year-old Maxine Montenegro sitting on the front steps of the Taoist Temple setting items of clothing on fire.
The fire that followed in May destroyed artifacts described as “irreplaceable.”
“We have surveillance cameras, so we were pretty much sure we knew what had happened,” said Arianne Wing, the president of the China Alley Preservation Society. “It’s hard for me to find words to describe the devastation, she really wiped out a whole chunk of history and we can’t really get it back.”