Officials report fire caused by arson

Two Bourbon County men are accused of intentionally setting a fire that caused extensive damage to an unoccupied garage in Bronson.

Anthony W. Weyant, 18, of Bronson, and a 17-year-old juvenile are accused of setting fire to the shed located behind the Gas and Stuff convenience store on Charles Street in Bronson.

The blaze occurred on May 15. It caused extensive damage to a section of the shed. The garage contained antiques and household items. Bronson and rural firefighters were able to stop the fire from consuming the entire garage.

Dave and Beverly Edwards, formerly of Bronson, owned the garage and its contents, along with another area woman who also had items stored in the structure.

The owners are roughly estimating damages between $1,800-1,900.

Bronson Police Chief Gene Parker said he and fire officials classified the fire as an arson case.

"There was no power going to it and no combustible chemicals of any kind stored in it," Parker said. "No gas, no water, no electric, nothing like that. That tells us that it was intentionally set."

Parker confirmed knowledge of how the fire was started, but, declined to release the information.

Various sources in Bronson led Parker to question the two men. "It was passed on through numerous people," he said.

He gained enough probable cause to move ahead and get a warrant.

Parker questioned the two suspects, but they did not give a reason why they would allegedly torched the shed. "I didn't get too much information out of them," Parker said.

The supposed arsonists didn't set the fire from the inside of the shed. "The padlocks were still locked on the doors. The firefighters broke those to get into the structure."

There's been two other fires recently in the county that have been determined to be arson. On May 8, a Bourbon County Deputy Sheriff took an arson report after firefighters extinguished a truck that was abandoned in the middle of a low water bridge on State Line Road south of Garland. Then on May 12, numerous hay bales were intentionally set in a rural area near Fulton.

Those two arsons are not believed to be linked to the suspects in the Bronson garage fire, deputy sheriff Mike Feagins said. Feagins worked the Garland and Fulton incidents.