An 81-year-old Coweta County man is facing arson and assault charges after authorities said he tried to set his 35-year-old live-in girlfriend on fire.
Barbara Dawn Coker escaped without injury, but the Wednesday afternoon blaze gutted Irvin Riley Smallwood's Senoia home, the Newnan Times-Herald reported.
Coweta sheriff's Major James Yarbrough told the newspaper that deputies responded to a 911 call about 12:40 p.m. about a domestic incident at the home on Rockaway Road.
Yarbrough said that while Coker was sleeping, Smallwood doused her with gasoline. Coker managed to get out of the house before Smallwood lit the fire.
Smallwood was being held in the Coweta County Jail Thursday morning, charged with arson, aggravated assault and criminal damage to property.
