Serial arsonist fans flames in LaFayette
Officials have determined the late night fire Tuesday, July 4, at an abandoned law office in downtown LaFayette as a serial arsonist’s handiwork.
That the fire was deliberately set prompted city officials to call for additional investigators into this and other recent fires.
The LaFayette Police Department and LaFayette Fire and Emergency Rescue will work with the Georgia State Fire Marshal, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI), and the ATF during this arson investigation.
Fire and Emergency Services director Stacey Meeks said that at about 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 4, police and firefighters responded to a fire at 205 West Villanow St. which formerly home to Hentz Law Office.
Meeks said a woman called 911 after seeing smoke coming out of the building as she was driving past.
Meeks credits the witness, as well as the quick response time by officers and firefighters, for saving the structure as the fire was contained to one office on the east facing side of the building..
The building was vacant and had no electric service, Meeks said.
It is not known at this time if an accelerant was used, but Meeks said the arsonist chose a front office in the building with lots of combustible material, including a massive amount of flammable paper.
Those materials would be a good fuel source for the fire, he said.
Though flames spread into the attic and through the roof, Meeks credits the building not being a total loss due to the quick response time.
This is the second arson at a commercial building within the past two months.
On June 20, a petroleum-based accelerant was discovered at the scene of a fire at Hammond-Jones Hardware on North Main Street, a few blocks from the most recent arson fire.
Police report that on Friday, May 26, firefighters dispatched to 211 Villanow St. at about 1:30 a.m. battled a blaze at an abandoned house near the LaFayette Cemetery entrance. Investigators ruled arson as the cause of that fire.
And in early May 2017, the fire at a vacant two-story house at 304 Simmons St. was also deemed arson.
Anyone with information about these fires should call the LaFayette Police Department at 706-639-1540.