DJ Porsche Foxx: I ‘was not part of’ fire

Radio personality Porsche Foxx, sought by fire investigators for questioning about a suspicious fire, called a press conference at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday to announce she was not involved with the fire that destroyed a Union City townhouse.

“I wanted to set the record straight … I absolutely, positively was not part of this,” she told reporters gathered at a Midtown apartment building.

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MARCUS K. GARNER/mgarner@ajc.com

Former V103 radio personality Porsche Foxx held a press conference Tuesday afternoon after Fulton County fire officials and arson investigators announced that they wanted to question her about a fire in Union City.

• Video: Porche Foxx denies involvement
• Photos: More from the fire
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She said she was in her bed sleeping this morning and woke to people calling her to tell her that authorities wanted to talk to her about the fire. She said she contacted the Fulton County Fire Department and Fulton County Police on Tuesday.

However, Keith Padgett, chief fire marshal for the Fulton County Fire Department said officials had searched unsuccessfully for her all day.

“There was no indication that we were going to speak to her. It took this [the press conference] for us to get to speak to her,” Padgett said Tuesday evening.

Padgett said Foxx answered some questions from investigators before the press conference began. He would not say what information Foxx provided or talk about the next step in the investigation.

A second woman was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment of a second-degree arm burn following the 2:30 a.m. blaze at the Mallory Park complex on Bagby Court off Flat Shoals Road, said Padgett.

Padgett called the fire “suspicious,” though the cause remained undetermined.

Through interviews with the injured woman and neighbors, investigators “learned that two people were there at the scene that left the scene, that we need to talk with,” he said.

One, Tony Matthews, lived in the townhouse with the injured woman. The other, Foxx, was visiting when the fire broke out, according to Padgett.

Foxx’s attorney, Leron Rogers, said she did not know Matthews, whom investigators also are looking for. Foxx, whose real name is Stephanie Calhoun, was a popular afternoon disc jockey at V-103 until the station fired her after a 2004 DUI arrest. She pleaded guilty in 2005 and was re-hired by V-103 in 2007. She was fired by the station again last November.

Three years ago, Foxx’s home in the upscale Regency neighborhood off Campbellton Road in south Fulton was destroyed by a fire that investigators determined may have been caused by an unattended candle.

Padgett asked that anyone with information on the whereabouts of Matthews call his office at 404-612-8907.