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Alabama home of Roy Moore accuser burns, arson suspected

A fire that destroyed house of Roy Moore accuser Tina Johnson is being investigated as a possible arson.
Image: Tina Johnson and Megyn Kelly
Tina Johnson and Megyn Kelly on Friday, Nov. 17, 2017.Nathan Congleton / TODAY

One of the women who accused failed Senate candidate Roy Moore of inappropriate sexual contact said Friday that her Alabama home burned to the ground and that investigators suspect arson.

But the local sheriff said he doesn't believe the blaze that destroyed Tina Johnson's house was connected to the bitter campaign.

"The ongoing investigation does not lead us to believe that the fire is any way related to Roy Moore or allegations made against him," Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said in a statement.

Johnson, who claimed Moore groped her in 1991 at his law offices, confirmed to NBC News that her home in Gadsden caught fire on Tuesday while she and her husband were at work.

“I am devastated, just devastated,” she told AL.com on Friday. “We have just the clothes on our backs.”

Nobody was hurt in the blaze, and the Etowah County Arson Task Force is investigating, said Entrekin.

“Investigators are speaking to a person of interest,” he said. "Warrants have not been obtained in this case."

Johnson, who is now staying at a motel, told AL.com that neighbors noticed a young man with a history of public intoxication near the house before and during the fire.

"When I arrived they had someone in custody and the firefighters were working double to attempt to put the fire out," Johnson said in a statement Friday.

"I watched as everything I have ever worked for disappear in front of my eyes. Devastating does not describe the loss me and my family have suffered," she said.

In an interview with NBC's Megyn Kelly in mid-November, Johnson said she was in her 20s and was signing custody of her son over to her mother when Moore touched her.

Moore, she said, grabbed her buttocks so hard she could feel the “dents of his fingers.”

“I was so humiliated and sickened,” she said.

The allegations by Johnson and the other women helped sink the far-right Republican’s campaign for a seat that was won by Doug Jones, the first Alabama Democrat elected to the Senate in a quarter century.

Moore has denied the women's charges and refused to concede to Jones even after the election results were certified by the state.