LaFayette, Ga., officials have asked a task force to look into a potential serial arsonist after five building fires in three months.
Using a stack of old papers and trash, someone ignited a fire inside an abandoned lawyer’s office at 205 W. Villanow St. around 11 p.m. Tuesday, said Stacey Meeks, the city’s director of fire services and emergency management. A woman driving by noticed smoke and called 911. The city’s public safety office is about one-third of a mile away, and firefighters were on scene within minutes.
They saved the building, Meeks said, though the fire damaged one room and part of the attic.
“Our officers did a great job,” Meeks said. “They were on scene and got on it really quick. It could have gotten a lot worse.”
This is the fifth building fire in LaFayette in the last three months. Three were in abandoned houses. Two were in businesses. All were in the downtown district, within about a half-mile of each other.