Police said the suspect sprayed an accelerant and left before officers arrived.
KANSAS CITY, MO — Police in Kansas City are investigating an apparent arson after a woman was seen setting a fire at a large south-side warehouse that had drawn protests over fears it could become an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. No injuries were reported.
The brief fire landed on a property already at the center of a political fight over immigration detention and local control. The building’s owner, Platform Ventures, said the day of the fire it would not move forward with a sale to the U.S. government, after weeks of pressure from elected leaders and neighborhood residents. Kansas City’s Bomb and Arson investigators are working the case, and officials said the suspect was still at large late Thursday.
Officers were called about 5:50 p.m. Thu., Feb. 12, to the 14900 block of Botts Road, where a witness reported a woman walked up to the building, sprayed a substance on the exterior and set it on fire. Firefighters arrived quickly and put out the flames before they could spread, police said. Video shot by a local TV crew showed flames flaring near window areas as the woman moved along the wall, then drove away. A reporter at the scene said he saw what appeared to be liquid thrown onto the windows just before the fire started.
Kansas City police said the woman left before investigators arrived, and no description was released in the first hours of the investigation. The Kansas City Fire Department told officers the blaze appeared to be intentional, police said, and Bomb and Arson detectives opened an arson investigation. The building was unoccupied at the time, and officials reported no injuries. Investigators did not immediately release an estimate of damage or say whether they recovered containers, ignition devices or surveillance footage from the site.
The warehouse is part of the 49 Crossing industrial development near Missouri Highway 150 and Botts Road on the former Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base site. The specific structure at the center of the controversy, known publicly as Building 7, is about 920,000 square feet and was built in 2023 for industrial use. Local officials said federal agents toured the property in mid-January, and Jackson County lawmakers said they were told the site could be used to hold thousands of detainees and serve as a training and logistics hub. The prospect of a large detention center in an industrial corridor drew protests and packed public meetings.
In the days leading up to the fire, local agencies also moved to cut ties with the developer. On Feb. 9, Port KC, the city’s economic development agency for industrial areas, voted to end negotiations and halt future partnerships with Platform Ventures. Port KC leaders said they could not legally block a sale because the company owns the building and the land, but they argued the project was approved and incentivized as a job center and should remain focused on manufacturing and distribution work. Port KC’s president and CEO, Jon Stephens, said the agency learned about the possible detention use through rumors and media reports, not from the developer.
Platform Ventures has said it received an unsolicited offer to purchase the vacant warehouse in October 2025 and that negotiations were complete by Jan. 16. But on Thu., Feb. 12, the company said it had decided not to move forward with any sale of the site to the U.S. government. The statement came as Kansas City leaders pushed for limits on new detention facilities within city limits. The City Council recently approved a moratorium that pauses approvals for new or expanded jails, prisons and detention centers through Jan. 15, 2031, and county leaders have discussed similar steps.
Mayor Quinton Lucas condemned both the detention proposal and the fire. “I am outraged by federal efforts to place 10,000 human beings in cages inside distribution warehouses in Kansas City or anywhere else in the country,” Lucas said in a statement after the incident, adding that he would rely on courts and local prosecutors to handle the person responsible for the fire. Other elected officials said the episode underscored the volatility of the debate and the need for clear answers about the property’s future use.
The investigation now turns on identifying the woman seen at the building, confirming what was used to ignite the fire and determining whether the act was tied to the public dispute over the warehouse. Police have not announced an arrest or filed charges, and they have not said whether any suspects are linked to earlier protests at the site. Officials also have not said whether the property remains under any active federal purchase effort after the developer’s announcement.
As of Sat., Feb. 14, the warehouse remained standing and the arson investigation was ongoing, with detectives reviewing witness accounts and available video. Police have not announced when they expect to release a suspect description or additional case details.
Author note: Last updated February 14, 2026.