Chattanooga Arsons

Chattanooga Fire Officials say July has been a very bad month for fires and for arson fires.

Chattanooga fire department says they are investigating over a dozen arson fires that happened over the month of july.

News 12's joeli poole has the details.

The chattanooga fire department has had an usually busy summer.

Over the last several weeks the fire department has dealt with a number of fires that they say were intentionally set.

Officially say they responded to 24 calls and out of those 24, 17 of those fires have been arson.

Moore "for some reason we have had one of the biggest months i think since i have been here.

Not only just fires but arson type fires."

Out of all the arson fires the fire department says only two of them have been connected.

36 year old robert franklin of crossville was arrested and charged with setting two hixson businesses on fire.

Officials say some of the fires took place in vacant buildings while others were occupied.

Captain anothony moore "some of the fires have been what we call aggravated arson.

Which has stipulations as far as people being inside the residents or there are injuries that occur from a fire that was intentionally set.

Thats a felony that can get you up to 25 years joeli poole "captain moore says arson type fires can be extremely dangerous to not only the people inside the buildings but also the fire fighters themselves.

The fire department asks anyone with any information about these fires to contact the chattanooga police department.

In chattanooga, joeli poole, news 12