Published: May 07, 2008 11:06 pm            

Grandview Inn fire ruled arson

Reward of up to $5,000 offered for info

South Point — A fire last month that damaged a number of rooms at the Grandview Inn was intentionally set.

The April 19 blaze has been ruled arson based on evidence found at the scene and witness interviews, the Ohio Division of State Fire Marshal announced Wednesday.

A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information about the person or persons who started the fire.

The fire started about 4 a.m. in the portion of the hotel that fronts U.S. 52. A hotel guest was taken to a hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation but was discharged and returned to the Grandview later in the day.

The injured man had been helping to alert and evacuate other hotel guests, authorities said. No one else was hurt.

Firefighters from six departments battled the blaze. Their efforts were complicated by flames that traveled from room to room via a common passageway for plumbing. Roof vents also fed oxygen to the fire, causing it to spread faster.

Twenty-six of the 30 upstairs rooms in the section of the hotel where the fire started sustained fire damage and three were smoke-damaged. Most of the downstairs rooms sustained fire damaged. The hotel has remained open following the fire.

A previous fire at the Grandview in 2005 destroyed the hotel’s kitchen and banquet facilities.

Anyone with information on the Grandview fire should contact the fire marshal’s office. In Ohio, call toll-free (800) 589-2728. For anyone calling from outside Ohio, the number is (614) 752-7126.

In an unrelated matter, the fire marshal’s office also announced Wednesday that Christopher Lockhart, 24, of had been indicted on three counts of arson by a Scioto County grand jury in connection with fires in three vacant houses in Wheelersburg on April 10.

Lockhart made statements to investigators implicating himself in the fires, which damaged three neighboring homes on Marne Avenue, officials said. Information retrieved at the scene, along with the fact that one of the homes had no utility service, led to the arson determination.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.

        

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