By Rebecca Lurye
The Island Packet
YEMASSEE, S.C. — Two former Yemassee Fire Department volunteers have been charged with attempted murder after they allegedly set fire to the station and Town Hall building with two people inside Tuesday night, according to Yemassee police.
Shortly after the fire, police received tips that Christopher Williams, 22, and Dominique Thompson, 21, both of Yemassee, might have been involved and arrested them within two hours, Capt. Greg Alexander said.
During an interrogation, one of the two men said they both poured gasoline around the door to the fire station about 11 p.m. and lit it because they were “feuding” with the volunteer who was inside.
That volunteer, a juvenile, heard an explosion and saw smoke, Alexander said. After he found the blaze, he went back inside and found the town clerk still working in the office. Both escaped uninjured, according to Alexander.
Two other firefighters saw the flames from the EMS building and helped the juvenile extinguish the fire.
The building sustained about $2,000 in damage, Alexander said.
Bond information was not immediately available for Williams and Thompson, who are being held in the Hampton County jail.
Alexander said he is working with the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office to determine whether the men are connected to a rash of other fires over the past few months, at East of Eden on Wall Street, a Family Dollar and several vacant homes.
Alexander said the former volunteers might be working for the Sheldon Fire District. Attempts to reach Chief Buddy Jones were unsuccessful Friday morning.
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(c)2014 The Island Packet (Hilton Head, S.C.)
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