Arson investigators looking for youths in connection with Dollar General fire

Authorities are looking for two boys and a girl in connection with an arson that caused $400,000 in damage to a Dollar General and injured two firefighters on Tuesday.

The juveniles are between 10 and 15 years of age and were seen running from near where the fire started shortly after 1 p.m. next to the store at 2427 W. Pawnee, Fire Marshal Brad Crisp said Thursday. Gusty southwest winds helped the fire spread quickly.

It took more than 70 firefighters about an hour to bring the fire under control. One firefighter suffered dehydration and another was injured by falling debris as he fought the blaze inside the store. Both were taken to a hospital for treatment and released in the evening, Crisp said. No employees or customers were hurt in the fire.

Investigators are still working to extract images from the hard drive of the store’s security cameras, which was damaged in the fire, he said.

“Employees of the store gave us pretty good physical descriptions” of the three juveniles, Crisp said. “We believe they probably live in that area. We believe they are probably known to people who live in that area.”

Juveniles playing with fire is not unusual, Crisp said.

“It happens with quite a bit of frequency,” he said.

Children older than 10 know fire is dangerous, Crisp said, and use fire as a tool or “to get even with someone.”

“Those are the kinds of things that concern us,” he said.

“I can’t really say what their intent was,” Crisp said of the three juveniles. “If they intended to actually do damage or they were messing around.”

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Arson investigators looking for youths in connection with Dollar General fire."