25K reward offered following 'suspicious' fire
May 30, 2012 (Menafn - The Daily Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --A Georgia company is offering a 25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever started fires over the Memorial Day weekend that destroyed two of the company's vehicles at a site in Standing Stone Township.
The owner of the vehicles, Benton Georgia Inc. (BGI) of Douglasville, Ga., is installing a pipeline at the site for Chesapeake Energy Corp., said Richard Kramer, a safety officer for BGI.
Destroyed by fire at the site were a D6K Caterpillar bulldozer and a Morooka buggy, which was used to transport hay that was being used in the seeding of grass and for erosion control, he said.
A hay blower at the site was also damaged by fire, as was the window of a Caterpillar excavator, he said.
BGI, which has an office in Wysox Township, was renting the excavator from Yancey Rentals and was renting the hay blower from RSC Rental Service Corp., he said.
The fires occurred at approximately 5 a.m. Sunday while the vehicles were parked on a utility right of way close to Tamarack Road, between Grove School Road and Schoonover Road, he said.
A passerby on Tamarack Road saw the fire at approximately 5:30 a.m. and reported it by calling 911, he said.
"He said it was fully engulfed (in flames) by the time he saw it," Kramer said.
A state police fire marshal, Trooper Jarocha, was investigating the fires on Tuesday, but declined to comment on their cause, as he was still investigating it.
Kramer said his company considers the fires "highly suspicious."
The vehicles were not running at the time the fire broke out, and there was "no lightning or anything" at the time, either, he explained.
He said he didn't think the vehicles were close enough to each other that the fire could have spread from one vehicle to another.
Workers from BGI were not working at the site on Sunday or Monday, he said.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Kramer at (770) 686-2674 or the state police at Towanda at (570) 265-2186.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633 or by emailing jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.
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