Reward Offered For Arson Investigation in Lafayette, Ga.

LAFAYETTE, Ga. (WDEF)- The state of Georgia takes arson seriously.

Someone tried to burn down a Lafayette hardware store on Tuesday and now there’s a 10,000 dollar reward for information about who did it.

Early Tuesday morning some Lafayette people who were driving by, probably saved the Hammond-Jones Hardware store on North Main from heavy damage or destruction.

It was a joint effort that helped that event have a happy ending.

“It could have been a disaster, uh, with just water damage, but they, uh, they took care of us, so I’m very thankful for the uh, citizen that saw it and reported it. We’re very blessed,” said Doug Ingram.

A citizen alerted the nearby police department and an officer rushed to the building.

“One of the officers came down, saw it, grabbed an extinguisher, uh, put out what he could,” said Ingram.

Firefighters came and finished the job, keeping damage to a minimum.

“Very rarely do we have an intentionally set fire in a um, commercial structure, which is what this case was, we’ve had, uh several fires recently that were abandoned residential structures that were, were intentionally set, but this, this so far we know for a fact was intentionally set,” said Stacey Meeks.

Most people are puzzled as to why anyone would dry to burn down a business, but the Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety Commission is more interested in “who”…rather than why at this stage of the investigation.

It has posted a whopping 10,000 dollar reward.

“If anybody saw anyone in that area, in the area of Hammond’s and Jones Hardware, um, around eleven o’clock, ten thirty, Tuesday night, just get with the police department and let them know, and we will get that information to the detective,” stated Meeks.