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October 27, 2009

Home’s 3 blazes lead firefighters to suspect arson

By Karen Middleton

Athens firefighters got a call to a home in the new Hawk’s Landing subdivision off North Lindsay Lane Sunday morning to find three separate extinguished blazes.

Chief Danny Southard called in the state fire marshal.

“The homeowner had left the house at 18250 Red Tail Street at the end of the third quarter of the Alabama game on Saturday,” said Southard. “He was away all night. When he came back, he discovered that the living room was burnt up.”

“We got the call at 9:56 a.m. and when we arrived we found no heat, no smoke inside. Exactly what they found was the living room had been completely consumed by fire. Upstairs, they found a small amount of smoke and heat in a bonus room.”

Southard said he got a call from one of his chiefs, David Andrews, who reported that he had found evidence of three separate fires in the house.

“When a fire never breaks a window, the fire can’t get oxygen and eventually extinguishes itself, and that’s what happened here,” said Southard. “The fires used up all the oxygen in the rooms and went out.”

He said that as well as the fire that gutted the living room, there was one fire each in the west bedroom and in the east bedroom. He said the resident, Walton Anderson, lives alone.

“I can’t tell you when we’ll have a report,” said Southard. “The state fire marshal said he is working on seven fires in other counties that happened just since last week.”

Meanwhile a deputy state fire marshal is continuing to investigate a fire that destroyed a home in the Piney Chapel community last month.

Limestone County Chief Investigator Stanley McNatt said the deputy marshal took samples to send to a state lab and photographed the scene at 21964 Hays Mill Road.

“It will be several days before we hear anything,” McNatt said.

Piney Chapel and Elkmont volunteer firefighters were called to the home at 11:30 p.m. and fought the blaze until 4 a.m., said Piney Chapel Chief Lance Pitts.

McNatt said the fire was deemed suspicious because the home had recently been vacated and utilities were off. The home allegedly was in foreclosure, he said.

Robbie Newport, who lives across from the home, saw the fire as he was preparing for bed and called authorities. He said the home’s occupants had moved out and power had been cut off.

The house might have been nearly 100 years old, Newport said.

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