Reward offered for info on church arsonist

State officials declared a church fire on Memorial Drive an arson, and authorities investigated whether as many as nine other fires along the same highway also were set deliberately.

By Monday evening, three “persons of interest” were taken into custody and were being questioned by DeKalb police officials, according to Marc Jackson, spokesman for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is assisting in the investigation. The three were questioned in relation to a stolen vehicle that might have a connection to the fires.

MIKE MORRIS / mmorris@ajc.com

DeKalb County firefighters continued to pour water on hot spots Monday morning after a suspicious predawn fire destroyed the Trademark Fine Arts Academy on Lauren Parkway off Memorial Drive.

• Fire trucks rolled all night
• Map of fire locations
• Photos
• VIDEO: Arsonist blamed for DeKalb fires

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DeKalb police and fire officials didn’t return calls and e-mails Monday night, but WSB reported that no charges had been filed against the three.

John Oxendine, insurance and fire safety commissioner, said Monday that someone set a fire Sunday night at an educational building at the Indian Creek Baptist Church at the intersection of Memorial and Rockbridge Road near Clarkston.

He said it was too soon to call the other fires — there were 11 in 24 hours — arsons, although “we would be foolish if we did not consider the possibility.”

DeKalb County officials later in the day discounted one fire as arson.

The commissioner’s office is offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of an arsonist.

Oxendine appealed to the public for help, saying that if a serial arsonist is at work, “Odds are that person has said something, somebody has heard something.”

Anyone with information may call 800-282-5804.

Arson investigations normally are slow work, he said, and “when you have 11 fires in a 24-hour period, it does tax your resources.”

Shortly after Oxendine’s news conference, the county fire department issued a news release saying the fire at a hair salon on Main Street in Stone Mountain was not being considered an arson.

— Christian Boone and Mike Morris contributed to this report.