AUSTIN – The perfect storm of a poorly trained state trooper, faulty surveillance equipment, and security procedures tripped up by renovations contributed to this month’s destructive fire at the Texas Governor’s Mansion, a Department of Public Safety sergeant investigating the incident said Thursday.

Sgt. Michael Escalante told the state Public Safety Commission that damage from arson, which nearly gutted the 152-year-old building, might have been avoided if there had been more or better-prepared troopers on duty at the mansion, and if security equipment had not malfunctioned.

As it was, he said, a single, poorly trained trooper who had already worked an eight-hour shift at an Austin history museum was on duty at the mansion. Seven of 20 security cameras were broken. Motion detectors weren’t engaged, because officers were under the false impression that they didn’t work while the mansion was undergoing repairs.

“With the cameras improperly working, with the beams inactivated, there should’ve been additional personnel on the ground, a second set of eyes,” said Sgt. Escalante, who did the review at the commission’s request. “It was a combination of things.”   

Sgt. Escalante also revealed that an off-duty police officer in the area at the time of the blaze saw a man bolting away from the governor’s mansion, jumping into a car and making a u-turn. The police officer found a lighter on the ground near where the man was standing, and turned it in as evidence.

An attorney representing the Texas State Trooper's Association, Don Dickson, previously told KVUE that one trooper was perfectly able enough to handle the job by himself.

"They are very capable law enforcement officers, and I have no trouble believing that one uniformed state trooper can safeguard basically an empty house with two fences around it at 1:45 on a Sunday morning," said Dickson.

Dickson also told KVUE that it's customary to have two troopers working patrol at the mansion overnight.

State and local fire investigators have offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the arson.

Detectives are looking for a white man between 5’9” and 6’1”.  On the night of the fire he was wearing dark clothing and a baseball cap.