A homeless man has been arrested after police said he attempted to start a fire inside of a vacant car wash in Fairmont on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the Fairmont Police Department, officers arrived to a vacant car wash near Madison Street in Fairmont at approximately 2:09 p.m. on Tuesday after observing smoke coming from the car wash. Upon arriving on scene, police said they spoke with a 43-year-old homeless man named Sammy Martz.
According to police, the smoke was coming out of the building through a front window that had been broken. Upon further investigation, officers found burned copper wire inside of the car wash, officers said. Police said that they found Matrz's personal items lying on the floor next to the burned copper wire. Additionally, officers said the copper wire had been stripped from inside of the car wash. Martz was not permitted to be inside of the vacant carwash, police said.