Fires ruled arson

Alexander Cain
The Union-Recorder

May 15, 2008 12:39 am

— The State Fire Marshall’s office has concluded arson was the cause of a fire that occurred at a West Bryant Street apartment Monday and at an adjoining West Bryant Street apartment Tuesday.
That’s according to a police report issued by the Milledgeville Police Department and fire reports available on both incidents through the Milledgeville Fire Department.
According to the MPD’s report, the State Fire Marshall’s office informed the Milledgeville Police Department on Tuesday that Monday’s fire had been “intentionally set.”
Both units are part of an apartment housing complex owned by Baldwin County Commissioner Geneva Davis.
The Union-Recorder attempted to contact Davis at her residence on Wednesday but did not receive a comment regarding any of her properties on West Bryant Street by press time.
Incident reports available from the MFD list a fire at 130 W. Bryant St., Apt. 2 on Monday at 4:13 p.m. and a fire at 130 W. Bryant St., Apt. 4, on Tuesday at 3:52 p.m. as “under investigation;” however, MFD Fire Chief Tom Dietrich confirmed in a phone interview that the State Fire Marshall’s Office had ruled both apartment fires as arson.
“Both fires have been ruled as arsons. The initial investigations were handled by the Milledgeville Fire Department and the State Fire Marshall’s Office; however, as of Wednesday the case has been turned over to the Milledgeville Police Department and the State Fire Marshall’s Office,” Dietrich said.
The West Bryant street fires come less than two weeks after an April 29 fire at a vacant apartment housing unit located at 1080 N. Wayne St., also owned by Davis.
Chief Dietrich declined to speculate on any relationship between the April 29 case and the fires earlier this week but did state that three fires in the same relative area in such a short period of time were “suspicious.”
“There are always questions that are going to be involved and questions that could arrive after the fact, but when something like this happens and you have three fires within 200 feet of each other in just 10 to 12 days, then that makes you re-evaluate your view of the incidents,” Dietrich said.
In both Monday and Tuesday’s case there was strong evidence of arson, according to Dietrich.
“In Monday’s case, there was nothing there to start it and there was a pour pattern on the floor. We got there so quick and put it out so quick that there was a lot of evidence left. The second fire had more damage but the point of origin was more obvious. The second fire, the one on Tuesday, started on a sofa and there was just nothing there that would have set it on fire,” Dietrich said.
The fire report on Tuesday’s arson spells out in graphic detail the amount of damage done to the apartment as a result of the fire, stating there was “visible flames and heavy smoking” when fire officials arrived at the scene.
The report also hints at a possible point of entry from the person or persons responsible for setting the blaze.
“During the attack the back door was found unlocked and partially open,” the report states.
As for whoever may have been involved in the creation of any of the three fires in the West Bryant Street area in the past two weeks, Dietrich declined to speculate on any possible leads and chose instead to defer any requests for comment to Milledgeville Police Detective Mark Bell.
“I haven’t seen any incidents like this since I became fire chief in 1997,” Dietrich said. “We did have one youngster that was caught that had burned a few structures in Milledgeville, and when I was fire marshall we had a person who was burning structures on the Southside of town.”
Though he would not provide comments on suspects, Dietrich did state the importance of catching whoever may have been behind the latest string of fires in Baldwin County.
“Someone out there knows who did this. These fires were intentionally set. The State of Georgia has an arson hotline that offers up to $10,000 in reward money for information, and we have placed fliers advertising that tip line at the scene of these fires, and we plan to put additional fliers in the area,” Dietrich said. “If someone knows who did this, then we encourage them to call the arson hotline, who will then provide the information to the Milledgeville Police Department.”

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