Macon battling a resurgence of arson cases
Deliberately set fires had been on the decline in Macon until this week.
Early Friday, firefighters were called twice to the same house at 736 Grants Chapel Alley off Jeff Davis Street outside of downtown.
At about 1 a.m., someone set fire to a tire near the front door of the house that is currently under renovation.
“There was still sawdust on the deck when we got here this morning,” fire investigator Lt. Ben Gleaton said. “It’s a brand new deck.”
Fresh lumber is still stacked up in the living room.
Firefighters quickly put out the fire, which was contained to outside the door.
“As soon as they left, somebody came back and set it on fire again,” Gleaton said.
About 15 minutes after the trucks pulled away, crews were called back for a blaze that began in the back of the house and burned into a bathroom.
This time the flames got into the attic. The house sustained heavy fire damage in some rooms with smoke and water damage throughout the house.
Gleaton believes the same person is responsible for both fires at the house.
Four hours before the first fire on Grants Chapel, firefighters were called to south Macon for a blaze in a brick house at 2441 Thrasher Ave. off Rocky Creek Road.
Gleaton said that suspicious blaze followed a major fire at about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday on Short Street at Clark’s Lane in Fort Hill.
That fire reduced the building to rubble.
Unlike last spring when a pyromaniac was suspected of multiple blazes near downtown, Gleaton does not believe all this week’s fires are all connected.
“They are too far apart,” he said.
Last year’s wave of nearly three dozen cases ended by summer and there have only been about a dozen arsons since then, including the four this week, Gleaton said.
Firefighters believe last year’s fire bug is no longer in town as the fires around Second and Ell streets abruptly stopped by about June.
Gleaton urges anyone with information about the recent fires to phone the Georgia Arson Hotline at 800-282-5804. Anonymous tipsters could be eligible for up to $10,000 in reward money.
Information from The Telegraph archives contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 1:45 PM.
