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N.C. Teens Accused of Arson, Breaking Into Station

Nov. 28, 2012

Four Fairmont teens, including two junior firefighters, are accused of setting fires to hay bales, woods and a historic building dating to the 1800s, and breaking into a fire department.

Source The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.

Nov. 28--LUMBERTON -- Four Fairmont teens, including two junior firefighters, are accused of setting fires to hay bales, woods and a historic building dating to the 1800s, and breaking into a fire department, authorities said.

All four were arrested Tuesday, said Lt. Brian Duckworth of the Robeson County Sheriff's Office. They are Michael Brandon Britt, 17, and Waylon Garrett Mayers, 16, both of the 7000 block of N.C. 904 East; Daniel Leamon Bass, 16, of the 5000 block of Old Stage Road; and Michael Antrone Gaddy, 18, of the 300 block of Harrington Road.

Britt and Mayers were junior firefighters with the Whitehouse Fire Department for six months, Duckworth said.

The fires were reported in August and on Nov. 3, Duckworth said, and mostly destroyed hay bales and woods. Multiple fires that burned 30 bales of hay were set about the same time on Nov. 3, Duckworth said. The fires were reported on Callahan and JW roads.

However, the four are accused of setting fire on Nov. 3 to a structure built around 1872 that was used as a commissary, where food and supplies were sold to workers, by the family of Susan Castlebury, Duckworth said. Castlebury, in an email to Duckworth, said that her grandfather constructed the building that stood on N.C. 904 using heart of pine boards. The damage is estimated at $60,000, he said.

He said the teens had tried, unsuccessfully, to burn the building once before.

The four are accused of burning a building, owned by Raymond Harrington Jr., on Oakdale Church Road on Aug. 10, Duckworth said. The building was valued at $3,100.

The four are charged with burning certain buildings, setting woodland fires and burning personal property. Bail was set at $3,500 for Mayers and $2,000 for Gaddy.

Bail for Britt and Bass, who also are charged with breaking into the Whitehouse Fire Department, was set at $4,000 and $3,000, respectively.

Staff writer Nancy McCleary can be reached at [email protected] or 486-3568.