Fire displaced 4 adults with special needs; fire ruled arson

FLOYD COUNTY, Ga. — Four special needs adults have been put out of their group home after an arsonist torched it.  Investigators in Rome are now working to identify suspects, while operators try to find another place for the residents to stay.

At first glance, it’s hard to tell what happened at the house on Brook Valley Court, but the damage inside is terrible.

"Like a memory book that my wife put all the family members and friends together.  It's just sitting there, it’s ashes now.  So, yeah.  Pretty bad,” home director Charlie Schroeder said.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Piles of mail dumped in woods; USPS investigating
• Man chokes customer's 4-month-old in Walmart checkout line
• Parents: Teen spoke different language after near-fatal concussion

Some of the cherished possessions belonged to Schroeder’s son, one of four special needs adults who lived in the home.  The Rome Fire Marshal said that last Saturday, somebody broke into the house and started two fires.

"It was set in two different locations, remote from each other in the house.  When you see that, it's never a naturally occurring fire,” Fire Marshal Johnie Evans said.

Evans said that that was the second arson at the house this month.  Back on October 3, pine straw in the yard was set alight, and the fire damaged the exterior of the home.

Charlie Schroeder says the men and the live-in caregivers were all visiting their families when the fires were set.  He says his son couldn’t understand that somebody set the fire on purpose.

"His bed is ashes. A lot of things he had. His TV is melted.  We haven't brought him over.  We don't want him to see it like that.  We want to wait until we get it back together,” Schroeder said.

Cox Media Group