Muskingum Drive fire
Marietta Fire Department was called out to a home in town Wednesday night for a fire that began off of a major thoroughfare.
“We got the call at 10:03 p.m. to a fire at 123 Muskingum Drive,” said Fire Chief C.W. Durham. “It appears to have started outside on the back porch. The fire was contained in 30 minutes to the rear of the house.”
Durham said the case remains under investigation and the state fire marshal will be called in today to determine whether the fire was a result of arson.
“But everybody got out safe and will probably be displaced at least for a night until the structure is deemed safe,” said Durham.
The home is owned by Rick Decker, 59, who was at home with his son and his son’s girlfriend at the time of the fire.
“I think it was arson, it’s too convenient that my truck was set on fire earlier this summer and now my back porch is lit up,” said Decker. “We smelled the smoke and my youngest son found it. So I gathered up my firearms and my son and his girlfriend gathered the pets and we got out.”
Decker is the self-proclaimed “Marietta Slate Man” and said he would not leave the home Wednesday night so to protect his slate in the home.
“I’m staying here,” he said. “There’s no way anyone is going to come and rob me right now.”
Muskingum Drive was blocked from traffic for the time that the fire department took care of the fire and was reopened at about 11:30 p.m.