Man Arrested In Connection With Meth Lab Fire At Tulsa Home

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – A man was arrested Wednesday in connection with a meth lab fire that destroyed a Tulsa home earlier in the day.

The fire broke out at a home in the 5800 block of East 76th Place just before 4 a.m Wednesday.

According to an arrest report, officers found items used to manufacture meth inside the home.

Firefighters arrived to find the home fully engulfed in flames.

Tim Smallwood, Public Information Officer with the Tulsa Fire Department, said crews went inside the home, but were unable to get to the scene of the fire.

Smallwood said a short time later, Smallwood said firefighters went to a "defensive operation" outside the home to keep the fire from spreading to nearby homes.

Smallwood said the residents of the home, a father, daughter and the daughter's live-in boyfriend, told firefighters the fire started in a back bedroom.

Police arrested the daughter's live-in boyfriend, 35-year-old Matthew Bledsaw. 

According to an arrest report, Bledsaw told officers he woke up and the "closet was on fire."

He was booked on one complaint of manufacturing a controlled drug and one complaint of first-degree arson.

Tulsa Police have said Tulsa is becoming known as the meth capital of the nation.  They say meth labs have increased 453 percent in Oklahoma in the last three years.

Lawmakers are currently considering a bill that would make pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in meth, a prescription-only drug. Pseudoephedrine is also used in many allergy medications.

3/15/2011 Related Story: Police And Prosecutors Fear Pseudoephedrine Bill Won't Pass

Two states, Mississippi and Oregon, have passed similar laws.