Jacksonville Police and the Office of the State Fire Marshall are investigating a possible aggravated arson incident. Jacksonville Fire and Jacksonville Police were called to the scene of a structure fire at 1241 Allen Avenue at 3:37AM yesterday.
Jacksonville Fire Chief Doug Sills said in a brief conversation that minimal damage was done to the structure and they were able to extinguish the fire in a few minutes time. Sills says the origin of the fire was suspicious because an object with flammable liquids were thrown through a window by unknown individuals. Sills says the State Fire Marshall’s Office brought an investigation dog to the scene yesterday afternoon and confirmed the presence of flammable liquids used in the incident.
Jacksonville Police Detective Doug Thompson says the investigation is ongoing: “Officers responded to a report of a residential fire yesterday morning. It appears that some sort of item that was on fire was thrown through a window and caused minimal damage inside the residence. At this point, it is too early in the investigation why it transpired or what took place exactly.”
Thompson says there are currently no suspects. Thompson encourages people to call the Morgan, Cass, Scott Crimestoppers at 243-7300 or submit a tip online by going to www.morganscottcrimestoppers.webs.com and clicking the leave a tip button on the home page. Tips may also be submitted by texting 274637 (CRIMES). The first word of the text tip must be “payout”. Thompson says people can also call the Jacksonville Police Department’s Investigations unit at 479-3570.