GAINESVILLE - City of Gainesville and Hall County authorities are working together to find the person who set a series of fires in the Shallowford Road area early Wednesday morning.
Hall County Fire Marshal Scott Cagle said a Gainesville police officer on routine patrol in the area first was notified of a car fire in the WalMart parking lot. Then, another fire was reported at an abandoned house nearby. A third fire was reported in a dumpster at Chick-Fil-A on Shallowford Road.
All three fires happened within a time span of approximately 30 minutes.
Cagle says the car and house were destroyed. He said the Gainesville Fire Department and Gainesville Police Department are taking the lead on the investigation.
This story will be updated.
Wednesday Morning at approximately 2:45AM City of Gainesville Police called in to report a car fire in
the parking lot of Wal-mart on Shallowford Road. The officer was conducting a business check when he
was notified of the car fire. While the officer and Gainesville Fire Dept were working the car fire, a
structure fire was notice only blocks away on Shallowford Road. Both Gainesville Fire Department and
Hall County Fire Services responded to the fire which turned out to be an older abandoned house. Fire
units were still en-route when they were notified of a dumpster fire at the Chick-fil-a also on
Shallowford Road.
All the fires appear to be suspicious in nature and are being treated as an act of arson. The car fire at
Wal-mart and the dumpster at Chick-fil-a are in the City limits of Gainesville and the vacant house is in
Hall County. The car and vacant house were both a total loss and there was no major damage to the
dumpster at Chick-fil-a. This case has been worked by Gainesville P.D., Gainesville Fire Dept. as well as
Hall County Fire and Hall County Sheriff's Office.
The agencies have a suspect and more information is pending.
Monday
October 28th, 2024
12:23PM
