BENTON - A fire at a historic schoolhouse earlier this week and a blaze that destroyed a small country church last month are possibly arson cases, authorities said Wednesday.
But the two fires at the old buildings in rural parts of Saline County don't appear to be related, easing fears about a serial arsonist, said Cpl. Aaron Washington, an investigator with the Saline County sheriff's office.
"These two won't be tied together," he said Wednesday, declining to release specifics about the cases.
He said samples of the charred rubble were collected from both sites to be tested for accelerants. He's awaiting results from the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock.
Firefighters were called to the old schoolhouse on Ferndale-Congo Road in the Avilla community north of Benton just after midnight Monday and found it ablaze.
The fire consumed part of the building, and it suffered extensive smoke and water damage.
Residents say the building is more than 100 years old. It's used for meetings of the Avilla Extension Homemakers Club, a division of the University of Arkansas. And it's a polling site.
"If there's an arsonist living in the neighborhood, it kind of makes you alert," said Lucy Murray, president of the homemakers club.
The fire immediately appeared suspicious because it originated in a part of the building that has no electrical wiring, Washington said.
No one was there, and the doors were locked when firefighters arrived, he said.
Few clues remain to the cause of the blaze that ripped through the Truth Tabernacle church on Stonehedge Trail in the Salem area on Feb. 19.
The fire moved so quickly, destroying nearly everything in its path, that it was hard to tell where it started, said Salem volunteer Fire Chief Wayne Walker.
"They investigated real thoroughly, but we haven't heard any outcome," he said.
Washington said residents didn't have any ideas about why someone would burn the community building.
"Every now and then you get people who want to see the pretty red firetrucks and a fire," he said.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 03/27/2008