Arson Suspected In Two Rural South Carolina Blazes

Lancaster, SC (AHN) - Police on Thursday warned residents that a dangerous arsonist may be lurking among them after a suspected arson fire burned a prosecutors office three days after an arsonist burned the historic Lancaster County Courthouse half a block away.

No one was injured in either fire. Thursday's blaze broke out at 4 a.m.

Before the blaze, there were plans to construct a new courthouse and turn the existing 180-year-old courthouse into a museum. But it was heavily damaged in the fire and there is no word yet on what it would cost to repair the damage.

Authorities haven't officially linked the two fires and haven't said they have any suspects in mind. However, they are telling residents to be on alert for friends or family members who show a lot of interest in the two blazes, and or offer explanations of how they fires might have started.

Lancaster, a town of 8,300, is the seat of a rural county of less than 65,000 people, 40 miles south of Charlotte, North Carolina and 60 miles north of Columbia, South Carolina.