$15,000 reward offered for information on furniture plant arsonist

ECRU, Miss. (WCBI) – A fire at a Pontotoc County furniture plant is ruled arson and now investigators are searching for a suspect.

The fire destroyed a massive warehouse and office complex at American Furniture’s Ecru plant.

By Sunday, investigators were on site, looking for clues.

Their investigation found that the suspect broke into the plant and used some sort of accelerant to set the blaze.

No one was working at the plant when the fire broke out.  This is the second case of arson at a Pontotoc area furniture plant within a month, but investigators say they have not found any connection.

They are hoping a $15,000 reward will prompt someone with information to come forward and help nab the suspect.

“This affects a lot of people, with Christmas coming up, Thanksgiving, holidays, this hurts a lot of people, not only people working here, but economy, people, where they shop and do other things, this hurts everyone,” said Pontotoc County Sheriff Leo Mask.

“We really want to enlist the public’s help, that’s going to be very valuable to try and clarify some things we are following up on right now, so we just want to encourage anyone with any information, from the night of, day before, anything they think would be useful, or not useful, in their minds to please contact us,” said Special Agent Jeff Powell, with the ATF.

The tip-line for the State Fire Marshal’s office is 888-648-0877.  Callers can remain anonymous.