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Federal agents join investigation into storage facility fire

HENRY COUNTY, Ga.,None — Federal agents have now joined the investigation into a fire that destroyed 200 storage units in Henry County.

Those units include a $300,000 "Gone with the Wind" memorabilia collection.

Channel Two's John Bachman learned Friday that Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms investigators are looking at samples from the fire to see if someone set it on purpose.

"My whole life was in there," Rodney Keidel said, who had one of the 200 units at Hudson Self Storage that were destroyed by fire.

"I had a 1958 Wurlitzer piano (and an) antique mantle clock from turn of century," Keidel said

Keidel said he lost his house to foreclosure and put most of his things in the storage unit.

"I lost enough then, now I lost all I had, you know?" Keidel said.

Investigators said the fire started about 10 p.m. last Thursday.

A week later, while Channel 2 Action News was there, people were pulling out water-soaked "Gone with the Wind" posters.

As the cleanup continues, investigators are not saying much about how the fire started. They do say federal investigators are going over samples from the fire.

They also tell Channel 2 Action News that the night of the fire a man went to a local hospital at about the same time the fire started.

Investigators told Bachman Friday that the man is at the Grady Memorial Hospital burn unit, but they have not talked to him yet.

Meanwhile, victims like Keidel are still reeling from the loss. He did not have insurance, but said the money doesn't matter.

"There's no amount of money … a lot of the stuff is priceless and I'm sure other people's stuff is priceless," he said.