Questions raised in rash of suspicious fires in South Memphis

Aug 1, 2007 10:27 PM

There are new questions concerning a rash of suspicious house fires in South Memphis.

Citywide, Memphis has seen 136 vacant structure fires this year and many are concentrated in South Memphis.

Whether or not anyone is actually investigating those fires depends on who you ask.

A J Arnold is a long-time Memphis fire investigator with a long list of problems in his personnel file including neglect of duty and anger issues.

Arnold has been suspended, demoted, docked pay and even fired.

Now he may get in more trouble for telling Action News 5 the city has yet to conduct a proper probe of South Memphis burning.

"To my knowledge and to the knowledge of the other members of the arson squad, there has not been any type of organized investigation into the arsons," said Arnold.

It's true no one has been charged in the many suspicious fires at abandoned houses in South Memphis.

Arnold added, "primarily, I have been on a few calls but as far as any type of true investigating as far as determining who may have caused these types of fires, it's been zero."

Some of Arnold's fellow investigators have called to support Arnold's claim. But the city fire marshal is not one of them.

"At this point we do have active investigations that are ensuing on the South Memphis fires," said Memphis Fire Marshal Ronald Brown.

Brown has oversight of 10 fire investigators who cover the entire city 24 days a week, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Brown added, "the goal and the mission of fire investigative services is first of all to determine the origin and cause of all fires be they arson, accidental, whatever the cause of a fire may be."

"So it's a big challenge to do that and we've got a limited fire investigations staff to do it with and we have a big city that is getting bigger," said Memphis Fire Chief Richard Arwood.

Arwood insists the department is working to solve the suspicious fires and welcomes suggestions on how to improve the probe.

Investigators said their ranks are so thin they're just covering day to day cases and unable to focus on the rash of South Memphis arsons.

ATF and Memphis Police have assisted in parts of the probe but there's still a disconnect among top brass as to whether a task force is investigating in South Memphis:

Arwood added, 'we are not at that point of forming a task force because the need just hasn't been there."

Brown said, "we have had a task force but once again at this point, the task force has not been active for several weeks now."

Crimestoppers has a $5000 reward for information leading to an arson arrest and conviction in the South Memphis cases.

Leaders at the Memphis Fire Fighters Association say they're working to adjust fire investigators' schedules.

(C) 2007 WMCTV