Police have charged a man with first-degree arson in connection with a Thursday afternoon fire that destroyed his family's century-old Charleston home.
Charleston Police Chief Justin Gammage said Eric Smith, 20, of 786 Tallaha Road, Tillatoba, was charged at about 2:15 p.m. Friday and was scheduled to face a bond hearing later in the day before Second District Justice Court Judge Denise Washington in Sumner.
Gammage said Charleston police took Smith into custody Thursday afternoon on an unrelated traffic stop. He was subsequently held overnight as a person of interest in the suspicious house fire.
Gammage said officials learned that numerous threats about burning down the home of his mother, Jere Prigmore, at 107 Martin Luther King Drive were posted on Smith's Facebook page Thursday.
The fire was reported shortly before 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Prigmore reportedly escaped without injury, but the structure was a total loss.
Firefighters train a hose on a house at 107 King Drive Thursday. (Photo by Clay McFerrin)
An investigator from the state fire marshal's office surveyed the scene of the house fire on Friday, then interviewed Smith at the Tallahatchie County Jail in Charleston, Gammage said.
The chief said Smith allegedly started the fire when he "lit something near the residence," but Gammage said the fire marshal's official report should reveal more details about the blaze.
"I have no idea about a motive," Gammage said.
Firefighters from Charleston, Rosebloom and Spring Hill responded to the inferno, noted Tallahatchie County Fire Coordinator Linnie Maples.
Maples said he was told the house was more than 110 years old, reportedly having been built with lumber harvested and milled locally by the Lamb-Fish Lumber Co. in Charleston.
IN THE TOP PHOTO: Firefighters Thursday battle a house fire that officials say was deliberately set in Charleston. (Photo by Clay McFerrin)
