ORANGE PARK, Fla. -- An Orange Park home and site of one of the most horrific crimes in the city's recent history will burn to the ground this week.
It's a cathartic burn with a purpose for Diena Thompson. Inside the home on Gano Avenue, Diena's 7-year-old daughter Somer was murdered by Jarred Harrell in 2009.
On Thursday afternoon, the Orange Park Fire Department will conduct a training exercise at the vacant, foreclosed-upon home in Orange Park, destroying the home that belonged to Harrell's mother in the process.
Diena, who is the head of The Somer Thompson Foundation that now owns the home, reached out to the Orange Park Fire Department to find out the best way the home could be used to benefit the community as a training site and how the home could be destroyed in the process. Diena said she wanted something good to come from the tragedy and allowing First Responders to train on the site would be one way to do it.
Specialized training involving search and rescue techniques will begin Thursday and will continue for two days.
The entire home will most likely be burned between 1 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. There will be road closures involved and extra law enforcement in the area.
Residents near the home will not be evacuated.
