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James G. Burns (Credit: Chesterfield Police Dept.)
JUNE 24, 2015
Investigators say they've arrested a man in connection to a suspicious explosion and fire that broke out early Tuesday morning at the InTown Suites in Chesterfield.
Chesterfield Police say shortly before 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, police and firefighters responded to a reported explosion on the hotel's third floor. The room's occupant was not present when first responders arrived. The hotel's sprinkler system was able to extinguish the flames.
While investigators have not released the cause of the explosion, they did call it "suspicious" and an arson felony arrest warrant was issued for the room's occupant, 53-year-old James G. Burns.
Burns
was located in the City of Richmond on Tuesday afternoon and arrested
without incident. He is currently being held at the Chesterfield County
Jail without bond.
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CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT)
Investigators are trying to figure out what caused an explosion at a Chesterfield hotel early Tuesday morning.
The
call came in around 4:30 a.m. for a fire alarm at the InTown Suites in
the 11500-block of Green Spring Road, between Koger Center Blvd and
Robious Road. Chesterfield County Fire and EMS tell us they found signs
of an explosion, and some residents report the building shook.
Most people were asleep when it happened, but not Brendon Chandler.
"Just a big explosion and then the window just ended up in the parking lot," remembers Chandler.
He was smoking a cigarette when all of a sudden in the room above his, "The window just shot right out!"
And, that's when guests say chaos erupted.
"I
just heard the fire alarm go off and I heard a whole bunch of people
running outside. The next thing you know, I'm waking up and just
everybody's going outside," says resident David Rivenbark.
Chesterfield
Fire says the explosion happened in a room on the third floor. The
blown-out window and melted plastic from the fire was evident from the
outside. That fire activated the room's sprinkler system. Some second
floor rooms sustained water damage from those sprinklers.
A
Hazmat team was brought in and tests found no hazardous materials in the
room, but investigators are calling the situation "suspicious" and say
the room's occupant was no where to be found.
One guest told NBC12, she heard footsteps before the fire alarm went off.
"[Someone
was] hightailing it down the hall. We're right in front of the elevator
near the stairwell, and I heard the stairwell door fly open and hit the
wall," she says.
Now police want to talk to that person.
No one was injured by the explosion, but two hotel guests were later taken to the hospital for unrelated injuries.
Police and the Fire Marshal's Office continue to investigate.