House fire with collapse that injured firefighters was arson, chief says
.jpg "Three Macon-Bibb County firefighters were hurt early Friday battling an arson blaze in a vacant house at the corner of Calhoun and Elm street lanes. This is the second deliberately set fire in about month, Chief Marvin Riggins said.")
An arsonist put Macon-Bibb County firefighters in grave danger early Friday as burning debris fell on them.
Three injured firefighters from Station 5 were taken to Medical Center, Navicent Health, after part of the building collapsed, Chief Marvin Riggins said.
When crews arrived shortly after midnight, the house at the corner of Calhoun Street Lane and Elm Street Lanes was fully ablaze.
"There's major damage," Riggins said.
This was the second time firefighters were called to the vacant house not far from Edgewood Avenue and Little Richard Penniman Boulevard.
It was set on fire about a month ago, too, he said.
"Someone was burning inside of the house," Riggins said.
Because crews knew about the earlier fire, they feared someone might be inside Friday morning and battled the flames to make sure everyone was out.
Part of the porch collapsed and flames eventually tore through the whole roof.
Capt. Cox and privates Hamilton and Grady were rushed to the hospital.
"We're very, very fortunate they weren't hurt any worse than they were," Riggins said.
Two of them were released hours later, Riggins said.
"All of them are seemingly fine," he said, adding none of them broke any bones.
It was unclear late afternoon whether the third one had been released from the hospital.
Rewards are possible for information that leads to an arrest of the person responsible for the fire.
Anonymous tips can be phoned into the Georgia Arson Hotline at 800-282-5804.
This story was originally published January 12, 2018 at 9:56 AM with the headline "House fire with collapse that injured firefighters was arson, chief says."