Arson investigations and how they play out

GOLDEN TRIANGLE AREA (WCBI) – The Walmart fire is the only active arson case in Starkville.

Investigators say they don’t see arson cases very often in the college town.

Over in West Point, the fire chief there says his department usually works about four or five cases a year.

Just last November, an arson investigation there resulted in a capital murder charge.

A fire is ruled as arson, if it’s determined that it was started with malicious intent, or if the person started the fire knowing that they shouldn’t have started it.

One fire marshal tells WCBI that it’s hard to determine arson and getting a conviction is very difficult.

When a blaze breaks out, firefighters are the first on scene.

West Point Fire Chief Ken Wilbourne says firefighters investigate every fire they respond to.

“When we rule on a fire, we either rule it as accidental or incendiary, and then, once it’s ruled incendiary, then it goes to intent on the person.”

When firefighters are trying to determine if a fire is arson, they look for certain things.

“We look to see what possibly could have caused it, natural, you know, man-made, something along those lines, just to see what caused it. We do a cause/determination and then we go from there.”

If it’s ruled an arson, firefighters and law enforcement work as a team to put the pieces together.

“Our job responsibility is to actually go in and figure how the fire started, where the fire started, and kind of go from there, and working with the police department, they kind of take over the side of the ‘who’ started the fire,” says Starkville Fire Marshal Mark McCurdy.

Once police take over the case, investigators go to the scene.

“It could be maybe an insurance fraud thing. It could be also to cover up a crime, or something like that right there, which you know, we’ve seen that in the past, so basically we take it over just to make sure that if there is a crime involved, as investigators, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do, to get it to the DA and get a conviction,” says West Point Assistant Police Chief Kennedy Meaders.

Meaders says different scenarios spark arson cases.

“If they are trying to cover up a crime, is it a money thing? A money thing involved? Is an insurance scam involved? So, we look at everything just like a regular investigation. Arson is just a little different, but just like a regular homicide, or something like that. We also take a look at family members and just go from there.”