THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 29, 1994 TAG: 9411290325
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: SMITHFIELD LENGTH: Short : 29 lines
Police have concluded that arson was the cause of a fire that damaged the new offices of the Isle of Wight commonwealth's attorney and a private law practice Nov. 20.
``Based on burn patterns and different places that were burned in the building, it's been determined to be arson,'' Smithfield Police Lt. Phil Hardison said Monday. However, he could offer no motive for arson.
Town police and arson investigators from the Virginia State Police investigated the fire that began about 9:20 a.m. a week ago Sunday in the new building in downtown Smithfield, Hardison said.
The commonwealth's attorney's office and the private practice of Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney William H. Riddick III and his partner, William K. Barlow, a state delegate, were to have been moved into the downtown Main Street building last Tuesday.
No documents were damaged, Riddick said, because no files had been transferred.
KEYWORDS: ARSON by CNB