GLASGOW — A recent spree of suspicious fires, which occurred between 9:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve and 4:30 a.m. Friday morning following New Year’s Day, actually started a day earlier with a seventh fire and have all been ruled arson cases.

According to a joint press release from the Glasgow police and fire departments, officials are continuing to investigate the fires that occurred between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2. These fires included one vehicle, one structure, two outside storage fires and three outside rubbish fires. All these fires are suspicious and are being treated as acts of arson the report said.

Members of the Glasgow Fire Department were called to a structure fire at 207 North Lewis St. at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday where an outbuilding and fence at the back of the property were reported on fire. The alley that runs behind the property is in the same area where firefighters were called to extinguish a wooden pallet and cardboard box fire on Thursday night at 9:15 p.m. behind Atmos Energy at 200 North Broadway.

Butch Chidester, of Atmos Energy, said he was aware the pallet fire had occurred in the alleyway behind the building and had spoken to the GFD about it, but that it had no direct effect on the business.

The owner of the house on the opposite side of the alley on North Lewis Street, Richard Burton, of Smiths Grove, wasn’t as fortunate. A fire department report estimated the damage to his property at $2,500. He thinks it will be more.

“I have no idea how much it will cost me to take care of it,” he said. “To clean it up and rebuild, it may take between $5,000 and $6,000. I had no insurance on it.”

Burton said the fire happened during the day, unlike the rest of the fires, but that it was still suspicious.

“There was nothing there – no electric, no other way for it to catch fire,” he said. The only items stored in the outbuilding were several pieces of plywood that were going to be used in remodeling the house.

Burton said he has had no contact with officials about the investigation into the fire since the day it happened and had not heard the incident on his property might be linked to the other six.

One of the fires also hit James Reece financially. He owned the 1999 Saturn worth approximately $1,000 that was burned New Year’s morning around 2:15 while it was parked behind Energy Exploration Inc. in the shopping center on Park Avenue.

Reece is an employee of the company and said he had made a deal to sell the car.

“I had actually just sold it that day,” he said. “I had a guy give me a payment on it and I had to give it back to him.”

He said ironically that he had just filled the gas tank so the fire had enough fuel “to pretty much melt the back end of the car.”

He has since sold the vehicle for scrap and had it hauled away.

Reece said there had been no problems previously of which he was aware with vandalism or loitering around the building. The company is also offering a $500 reward through local law enforcement agencies for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the vehicle fire.

On the other end of the shopping center at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, assistant manager Elaine Ekhardt said a couch, which was set on fire earlier on the same evening as the car, was left out in front of the store as a giveaway. Instead, the perpetrator(s) dragged the piece of used furniture halfway down the sidewalk of the shopping center and set it on fire in front of an empty store front adjacent to Hatchett Home Medical Equipment.

“We had set it out for free for someone to take and use,” she said.

A storage building behind the old E.B. Terry Elementary School at 317 Columbia Ave., which is now owned by Calvary Baptist Church, was set ablaze about 3:30 a.m. Friday. Both Becky Austin, church secretary, and Dave Cash, associate pastor, said there was nothing of much value in the structure and the church wasn’t using it. The desks, computers and other miscellaneous items stored there were left over from when the church took over the school property, they said. The building was not insured and the church has no plans to replace it.

At the same time firefighters were trying to extinguish the blaze in the building at the back of the school, another fire was set in a structure at 301 Ford Drive next to the House of Praise Church. That building burned to the foundation and was a total loss. Fire chief Bobby Bunnell said the department is still trying to determine who owns the property.

The last fire was reported at 4:30 a.m. the same morning in a trash bin behind Houchens Market at 425 Happy Valley. It was contained to the bin and was quickly extinguished by firefighters.