Friday, July 31, 2015

Local Barn Burning Intentional: Fire Department Officials Suspected In Cause, Cover-up

By:  Marshall Ramsey II, Worthy News, US Correspondent

REEVESVILLE, South Carolina -- A 6,000 square foot barn went up in flames last Thursday on Wimberly Dairy Farm Road.  Thankfully, there were no reports of injuries.  However, details given to a local newspaper reveal that not only was the blaze intentional, but that at least one firefighting agency are covering up the truth about what really happened.

According to the official story, the alarm sounded at the Dorchester County Fire Department in Saint George shortly after 11 PM with the first engines responding nine minutes later.  This is false.

I live about four or five miles from the site of the blaze.  At approximately 9:30 PM, I stepped out on my front porch and I heard the sound of loud popping noises coming from the direction of Reevesville. This was immediately followed by the sounds of many sirens.  I then called my wife to listen.  She came to the door and heard both the popping sounds and the sirens.  This makes two people who heard the same thing at the same time.

The next day I spoke with a local resident of Saint George, which is next to Reevesville and asked about the popping sound that I and my wife heard.  She said there was a barn that caught fire in Reevesville.  This confirmed the location that I suspected the popping sounds originated from.

Another Saint George resident stated that her boyfriend was part of one of the agencies that responded to the fire.  She stated that he didn't get home until around 1:30 AM the next morning.

According to official details, the fire is presumed to have lasted about two and one half hours.  If the call had actually been received just after 11 PM, this contradicts the testimony of both myself and my wife, that at around 9:30 PM the fire had been burning for some time and firefighters were already on their way to the scene of the blaze.  The time of 11 PM given by the Dorchester County Fire Department is not only false, but suggests that they are involved in the causing of the blaze.

Tres Atkinson, Chief of the Dorchester County Fire Department stated that green feed filled the storage facility and that the owners told him chemicals were stored nearby.  This means that they were not being stored in the same building as the feed.  He also stated that the investigation that followed concluded that the chemicals probably caught fire and the contents of the barn provided fuel "for the growing blaze" to accelerate."

If Chief Atkinson is to believed, and partly he is, the chemicals did catch fire and the contents fo the barn caused the growing fire to accelerate.  However, under careful examination, Chief Atkinson's story will go up in flames faster than the barn.

Anyone who has ever burned yard debris knows that green material is difficult to burn.  The only ways to make sure green material burns is either to dry it out (which doesn't appear to have happened i this case) or to use an accelerant, which is a fancy word that means something to make a fire burn faster and hotter.  Given this information, it stands to reason that the feed inside the barn contained some sort of accelerant when it caught fire, most likely the same chemicals that caught fire in a separate storage area.

Another part of the statement given by Chief Atkinson is that it was a "growing blaze."  This suggests that Chief Atkinson was there shortly after the fire broke out and watched it grow.  If this is the case, why then did Chief Atkinson not call the fire in?  Why did he let the fire burn for an hour and a half before doing anything?  The answers:  The fire did not start after 11 PM as his department stated, but rather some time before 9:30 PM while he was there.  This suggests that Chief Atkinson either set the fire or was present when the fire was set.

The question that must now be asked is this, "Why was the barn intentionally set on fire?"  Was it to commit insurance fraud?  If so, then Chief Atkinson's participation in the event is even more likely.

Earlier this year in Saint George, the home of Brian Fehr, Chief Executive Officer of Comact, which manufactures equipment for use in the lumber industry and located in Saint George, burned to the ground.  Evidence presented in the case not only suggested that Mr. Fehr had his house set on fire, but also that Chief Atkinson was involved with Mr. Fehr in the plot.  There is no evidence to suggest that the owners of the barn are involved in any insurance scam, however it seems unlikely that Chief Atkinson would set a building on fire unless he could make some money off of it, or for some other purpose.

The evidence on hand suggests that Chief Atkinson along with members of the Reevesville, Cattle Creek, Indian Field, Harleyville, Ridgeville, Eutawville, and Lebanon Fire Departments planned this event in advance, perhaps for financial gain.

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