ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997 TAG: 9702260062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHAMBLISSBURG
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
A Bedford County appliance store owner died in a fire Tuesday after he reportedly cut his 11-year-old son on the neck and set ablaze his home and shop.
Police were not releasing the man's name, but friends and family members said William C. "Bill" Hall, 65, the owner of Hall's Appliance, had an argument Tuesday morning with his wife, Virginia, and his 11-year-old son, William Michael Hall.
Bill Hall nicked the boy in the neck with a pocket knife, giving him a minor wound, said Bedford County's Sheriff's Lt. Kent Robey. The child was being treated at Bedford County Memorial Hospital and was upset but in good condition, said his brother, 17-year-old Todd Anthony Hall.
After cutting his son, Bill Hall went into the house, poured lamp oil on the furniture and ignited it, Todd Hall said. The fire spread, consuming both the family home and the attached cinder block shop on Virginia 24, where Hall sold used appliances and parts for the last 12 years.
"I had just come back," Todd Hall said. "We were delivering a refrigerator down the road, and we came back, and the house was smoking. We didn't know what was going on."
Virginia Hall called police about the wounding shortly before the 11 a.m. fire, and she and her 11-year-old son were outside waiting for police when it started. The house was in flames by the time Sgt. Ray Mayhew arrived.
Volunteer firefighters from Bedford, Stewartsville, Chamblissburg and Moneta spent hours searching for Hall's remains amid the smoking timbers and twisted sheets of metal roofing. His body was recovered at 3:45 p.m. in what was the living room of the small home.
Bill Hall had been having emotional problems and was upset about a court dispute with a neighbor over land near a home Hall was building on Virginia 616, his son said. The family had tried to get him to go to a psychiatric hospital in Lynchburg, but Hall refused. "He was nervous, worrying, worrying, worrying," his son said.
Garland Simmons, a friend of Bill Hall's, said Hall was talking about dying last Friday. "He's been walking the floor and not sleeping or eating. A fuse was burning in him," Simmons said. "I feel like the man needed spiritual help."
Still, Simmons and other friends said they had never known Bill Hall to be a violent or dangerous man and, in fact, knew him as a man who cared for his family.
"If I needed an element for my stove, Bill would say, 'What kind of element is it?' and before you could turn around, he'd get it, and I'd say, 'Let me pay you for it,' and he'd say no," Simmons recalled.
Repaying some of Hall's past kindness, Simmons asked Todd Hall if he had a place to stay. As the younger Hall's eyes kept darting back to the smoking ruins where his father's body might lie, Simmons and another man each gave the boy $10.
"You go get yourself something to eat and give us a call if you or your momma need a place to stay, you hear?" Simmons asked. Todd Hall quietly thanked the men and walked away.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY STAFF. Firefighters work on a fire onby CNBVirginia 24 near Staunton River High School. Volunteer firefighters
from Bedford, Stewartsville, Chamblissburg and Moneta spent hours
searching the rubble for the remains of the man family members say
set the fire. color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY