LAFAYETTE, Ga. — A former LaFayette volunteer firefighter sat handcuffed and blank-faced Wednesday as a judge read an arson charge against him.
Police believe 33-year-old Marvin Chase, who began volunteering with the city fire department in 2005, is a serial arsonist responsible for setting a slew of fires in vacant houses in the last five years. While Chase has been charged with only one count of arson, for a fire on Ryan Road, Meeks said police hope to have enough evidence to indict him on about 20 counts when the grand jury meets in January.
“Serial arsonists never give up,” he said. “This isn’t the first volunteer firefighter that we’ve arrested for doing arsons. We take it very serious.”
In the last 11 years………
Georgia has arrested and convicted more than 25 firefighters for arson charges, Shuman said. On Wednesday afternoon, Chase’s family members watched as Walker County Magistrate Sheila Thompson read the charge in the county jail’s small courtroom and set a $10,000 bond. Family members later declined to comment. By Wednesday evening, Chase had posted bond and was released from the Walker County Jail, a detention officer said.
About 95 percent of the fires were started in the Linwood area, which used to be a mill town before being absorbed into the city. Every time one of the abandoned buildings caught fire, which occurred about 30 times in the last five years, Chase was usually the first firefighter on the scene, Freeman said.
Chase’s behavior was suspicious, but nothing happened until several people called the local police tip line saying that Chase had told them what he was doing, Freeman said. Chase also worked for the city’s Water, Wastewater and Sewerage Department, Freeman said.
Volunteer firefighters are paid a small amount for each structure fire they respond to, Meeks said. But he said Chase told investigators he mainly “just liked fighting fires.”
Source: Joy Lukachick – Chattanooga Times
