Prichard fire chief says demolition does not affect investigation

PRICHARD, Ala. (WALA) - Numerous suspected arson fires in the city of Prichard have raised tension between city leaders and business owners like Bishop Holmes whose business burned this week.

Prichard Mayor Ron Davis released a statement about the fires and the fire chief says that procedures have been followed.

"All of the pieces are not together I'm not publicly accusing anybody but I am suspicious myself," Holmes said.

The fire investigators who are trying to determine who set the fires and how will probably find it a lot more difficult now that the structures are gone.

The fire at Holmes' building on Wilson Avenue happened early Monday morning, and within hours the building was torn down. Apparently, that's not the way arson cases are handled in other cities, including Mobile.

"We need to control custody of that property, and collect all the evidence that we can from that property because once we let it go and give it back to the owner and they decide they're going to clean that lot off or what ever the case may be then we lose any chance later on of collecting evidence from that," said Mobile Fire-Rescue spokesman Steve Huffman.

Huffman said no building is ever been torn down before the city's arson investigators have collected all the evidence, and released the building.

He also said that can sometimes take days.

Officials at the Saraland Fire Department said a building would never be demolished within hours of a fire when arson is suspected.

Prichard Fire Chief Mark Trenier said he used to be a fire marshal in Mobile and "nothing has changed."
"It's just like Mobile," Trenier said.

Questions have arisen as to why several buildings that burned down in Prichard were torn down so quickly.
He said the buildings' instability and a desire to ensure public safety influenced the quick move to demolish them.

"We have a problem out here with people going into the buildings trying to salvage copper and wire and everything, and we didn't want the building falling in on anybody," Trenier said.

He said the destroying the structure would not hinder their investigation or the search for evidence in the arson cases.

"We can get in there and do what we need to do," he said."It's still there, everything is there in that pile."

The chief could not immediately provide any numbers as to the number of solved arsons in Prichard.