Moore County sheriff's deputies have charged two Highfalls firefighters and two other men with setting a house on fire.
About 5 a.m. Nov. 26, firefighters responded to a blaze at an unoccupied home on River Road in High Falls. The Moore County fire marshal's office and the Sheriff's Office conducted an investigation and determined that the fire had been started with materials at the scene and was of a suspicious nature.
There have been a string of suspicious fires in the High Falls area over the past eight months, said Lt. Bill Mackey with the Sheriff's Office. The investigation is continuing.
The day of the fire, deputies arrested Fabian James Perez, 24, of Robbins; Tyreece Antwain Chisholm, 21, of High Falls; Daniel Wayne Kennedy, 23, of High Falls; and Jonathan Barritos Sanchez, 22, of Robbins.
Deputies charged all four with burning an unoccupied dwelling and felony conspiracy. Chisholm and Kennedy are volunteers with the High Falls Fire Department. Kennedy had also been a 911 operator, Mackey said, but has resigned since his arrest. Perez and Sanchez are their friends, Mackey said.
Sanchez was jailed with secured bond set at $20,000. Perez and Kennedy were given $7,500 secured bonds. Chisholm was released on a written promise to appear in court. Their first court hearing is Monday.
The four had been talking and drinking together that night, Mackey said. He couldn't say exactly where they had been drinking. "We had an indication they'd been together earlier in the evening and had been drinking," Mackey said. "They got together there in the High Falls area. They were talking and drinking beer. That's how the incident started."
He said he couldn't attest to the state of their sobriety during the fire because they weren't suspects at the time.
"We don't know their intoxication level the night of the fire," he said.
The burned house belonged to George Shields, 86, who lives nearby on River Road, and had been in his family for several generations.
Shields told investigators that his father was born in the house in 1889.
"His family built that house by hand," Mackey said. "It was very sentimental to him. He was very upset about the loss."
The loss of such an important structure led the Sheriff's Office to put added resources on the case, Mackey said.
Investigators continue to look into several other suspicious fires in the High Falls area, the earliest dating back eight months. They are asking that anyone with information contact the Sheriff's Office at 947-2931. All the fires were at unoccupied structures or brush fires.
"Hopefully, we're going to stop this pattern that we've had," Mackey said. "The investigation is definitely ongoing."
