Pyromaniac plaguing Macon neighborhood 'risks about 20 lives' in each vacant house fire

For a good hour Wednesday morning, a Macon-Bibb County arson investigator canvassed the neighborhood around Ell and Second streets.

Sgt. Steve Wesson was hoping to catch a persistent fire bug in the act, but no luck.

Just as he got back in the office at about 9:35 a.m., the fire alarm sounded again.

"It's like cat and mouse," a frustrated Wesson said as firefighters were mopping up the latest deliberately set blaze in a vacant house.

"I will get him," he vowed.

After a spate of deliberately set fires within about a mile and a half in recent months, it appears an arsonist is turning up the heat.

"He's wearing us out, I can tell you that. ... Every time he does it, he risks about 20 lives," Capt. Jimmy Hollis said as crews rolled up the hoses at 1091 Ell Street across from Laveta Drive.

The morning before, at about the same time, firefighters battled a blaze in a vacant house at 2426 Second St. next to Lucky Food Mart at the corner of Ell Street.

That same house was set on fire Saturday, Capt. Michael Williamson said.

A front bedroom burned the first time, but Williamson thinks the second fire will mean condemnation for the wooden house not far from Fire Station No. 5.

"We've got something going on in the neighborhood and I'm not real sure what's going on, but our arson investigators are checking around," Williamson said.

Just down from Second Street at 709 Ell Street, an arson hotline poster is propped up in the front yard from another deliberately set fire in a vacant house.

"We had a firefighter get hurt in one of these arsons when he fell off a ladder," Wesson said.

No one was hurt Tuesday or Wednesday, but Wesson's patience is about to boil over as he strives to catch the person responsible.

Even Hollis, who was working a battalion chief's shift Wednesday, remarked about how frustrating it is for the investigators who are on call every day.

"I get it every other day. He gets it every day," Hollis said.

Off the top of his head, Wesson said there have been between 15 and 20 arsons in this neighborhood just south of downtown and north of Eisenhower Parkway.

They usually happen in the morning, he said.

"It's gotten worse here in the last few days," Wesson noted as firefighters were still pumping water on hot spots Wednesday in a nice brick house up on a hill. "These guys are getting wore out. They're fighting fires every day."

Wesson's been putting up arson hotline posters at each blaze.

Tipsters with information responsible for leading to an arrest can pocket a reward.

Callers to 800-282-5804 can remain anonymous.

Catching the culprit will be a community effort, he said.

"There's only one of me," Wesson said. "It's going to take somebody seeing something and giving me information because I can't be everywhere at one time."

This story was originally published April 18, 2018 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Pyromaniac plaguing Macon neighborhood 'risks about 20 lives' in each vacant house fire."