Thursday, January 8, 2015
Info Still Being Sought Regarding Deadly Fire
Authorities are continuing to ask for information from the public in the hopes of determining the origin of a house fire that claimed the life of a Lawrenceburg man in late December.
Richard Andrew Stafford, age 66, perished as a result of a fire at his 223 Brink Street home on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 30. Authorities said that members of the Lawrenceburg Fire Department arrived on-scene within three minutes of receiving the call, but that Stafford was already dead.
Details of the fire scene, said Assistant Lawrenceburg Police Chief Darren Goolsby, left investigators with questions. He said Thursday that elements of the scene appeared to be “suspicious” in nature, requiring additional investigation. He said that several persons have been interviewed, “And we’re asking the public for information.”
Fire Chief Jay Moore explained, “We’ve got countless hours invested in this investigation…As with any fire we’re tasked with determining cause and origin by TCA code. With this fire death involved we’re going to make sure that we go to every extreme to determine that.”
A joint investigation has been underway through both departments along with several other agencies, including the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, State of Tennessee Bomb and Arson Section, and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Anyone with knowledge of the circumstances of the fire, or who was in the vicinity of Brink Street and Mahr Avenue at around 3:30 p.m. that day, is asked to contact authorities with any relevant information.
“We are asking for the public’s help in this,” Moore said. “We need to know anything that you might have seen. You can be anonymous through the arson hotline or contact the police department or sheriff’s department.”
Contact numbers include: Lawrenceburg Police Department - 931-762-2276, Lawrence County Sheriff's Department - 931-762-3626, and the Tennessee Arson Hotline - 1-800-762-3017.
A cash award is available through the Arson Hotline for information that leads to an arrest or conviction of persons responsible for suspicious and incendiary fires.
