Georgia · Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County · Fires & Rescues

Camp Perrin Road House Fire in Lawrenceville, GA Ruled Arson; Six Adults Escaped

Gwinnett County fire investigators say the Aug. 5 fire in the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE was incendiary — deliberately set. Everyone inside was out before firefighters arrived. Georgia Arson Control Inc. is offering up to $10,000. No suspect is named in the reporting we relied on.

What happened on Camp Perrin Road

A house fire in the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE in Lawrenceville was deliberately set, Gwinnett County fire investigators determined. Everyone who lived in the house was already outside when firefighters got there. Nobody was hurt.

That is the whole of the established story. Five named outlets published the finding, in five slightly different sets of words.

FOX 5 Atlanta reported that "On-scene fire investigators concluded the cause of the blaze was incendiary."

WSB-TV put the same finding in plain English: "Fire investigators determined the fire was incendiary, meaning it was intentionally started."

CBS News Atlanta named the agency and described the damage: "A fire that severely damaged a Lawrenceville home and displaced six adults was intentionally set, Gwinnett County fire investigators believe."

WSB Radio reported that "Investigators determined the fire was intentionally set," and The Georgia Sun reported that the fire "has been ruled arson."

Notice what none of those sentences do. Not one names a person. An arson ruling is a conclusion about a fire — where it started and what started it — reached before anyone knows who was holding the match. Those are two different questions, and the gap between them is where most bad reporting about fires lives.

Exactly where: the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE

The location is the firmest detail in this story, because four of the five outlets used the identical block reference.

FOX 5 Atlanta reported that "Fire crews rushed to the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE at 5:22 a.m. on Aug. 5." CBS News Atlanta reported "the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE around 5:14 a.m. on Aug. 5." The Georgia Sun reported "a home on the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE at 5:14 a.m. on August 5." WSB Radio reported "a single-family home in the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road." WSB-TV reported that "Firefighters were called around 5 a.m. August 5 to Camp Perrin Road NE."

A block reference is deliberate imprecision, used on purpose. It tells a neighbor which stretch of road to think about without publishing the exact house of six people who have just lost everything in it. The Local Alert is not going to narrow it further — no street number, no subdivision, nothing that would put a stranger in front of that driveway.

Camp Perrin Road NE is in Lawrenceville, the seat of Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta. Fire protection there is a county service, which is why the coverage attributes both the response and the investigation to the county rather than to a city department.

Who was inside: six adults, out before crews arrived

Six adults lived in the home, and every one of them was out of it before the first fire apparatus arrived.

FOX 5 Atlanta reported that "all six adult residents managed to escape safely before firefighters arrived, and no injuries were reported." The Georgia Sun reported that "Six adults who lived in the home had already escaped before firefighters arrived. No one was hurt." CBS News Atlanta reported that "Investigators said everyone escaped before crews arrived." WSB-TV reported that "Everyone inside had escaped before firefighters arrived, and no injuries were reported." WSB Radio reported that "Crews searched the home and determined everyone inside had made it out safely," and that "Six adults were displaced."

Read the WSB Radio line again, because it describes a step people rarely picture. Crews searched the house — a structure that was on fire — to confirm the count outside matched the count inside. That search is standard, it is the most dangerous work on a fire ground, and the fact that it came up empty is why this page is not an obituary.

None of the six is named anywhere in the reporting we relied on. No ages, no relationships, no account of how they came to share the house, and The Local Alert will not supply any of it. Six adults under one roof in metro Atlanta could be a family, roommates or several generations, and guessing would be an invention dressed as a detail.

What "incendiary" means in a fire report

The word is the hinge of this story, so it is worth being exact about it.

Investigators sort a fire's cause into a few categories: accidental, natural when something like lightning started it, undetermined when the evidence will not support a conclusion, and incendiary when the evidence indicates deliberate ignition where fire should not have been. WSB-TV translated it for readers: the fire "was incendiary, meaning it was intentionally started."

It is a finding about the fire, not about a person. An investigator can be certain a fire was set and have no idea who set it. That is the posture of this case as the reporting describes it.

It does not tell you what was used. Nothing in the reporting we relied on says how the fire was started or where in the structure it began. Those details are the core of a cause-and-origin file, and agencies hold them back precisely because they are what only the person responsible would know.

And "incendiary" is not the same word as "arson." Incendiary is the fire service's cause classification. Arson is a crime defined by statute, requiring proof of a person's knowledge and intent, charged by a prosecutor and proved in a courtroom. The Georgia Sun's shorthand — the fire "has been ruled arson" — is a fair description of an incendiary ruling. It is not a charge, an indictment or a conviction, none of which exists here in the reporting we relied on.

When the fire was called in — and why the times differ

Here is the one place these five outlets do not line up, and rather than quietly picking a favorite, we are putting all of it in front of you.

FOX 5 Atlanta reported 5:22 a.m. CBS News Atlanta and The Georgia Sun each reported 5:14 a.m. WSB-TV reported "around 5 a.m." All four descriptions attach to the same date, Aug. 5, and to the same block of the same road.

Eight minutes is not a scandal. A fire generates several timestamps, not one: when a 911 call is answered, when a dispatcher tones out a station, when a unit marks en route, when the first engine marks on scene. Different spokespeople release different ones, and "around 5 a.m." is rounding on purpose.

What none of those figures is, is the time the fire started. Each describes the fire service being called or arriving. Nothing in the reporting we relied on establishes when this fire was set. The Georgia Sun described it as breaking out "before dawn," which is the safest characterization available.

Schematic sequence, not to scale. This diagram shows the order in which facts were established by named outlets, not the movement of anyone or anything. No coordinates have been published for this address and none are shown here.

Where our sources differ

Five outlets carried this story. On the central finding they say the same thing in different words. On the clock they do not agree, and one status detail rests on a single newsroom. Below is who established what, so you can see the weight behind every line on this page.

Three of the five newsrooms report the case is still open, and none of the five names a suspect. CBS News Atlanta stated it most directly. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that officials have not identified any suspects.

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Has anyone been arrested or charged?

No arrest and no charge appears anywhere in the reporting we relied on.

CBS News Atlanta reported that "Investigators said the fire was intentionally set, but the case remains under investigation." That is the status line on this page, and it comes from that one outlet.

There is no named suspect here, and no unnamed one described by age, sex, vehicle or relationship to the household. A reward offer is not a suspect. A reward is an inducement to produce information that does not yet exist in the file — a signal that investigators want the public's help, which is very different from having someone in mind.

We are also not going to characterize this fire's target or motive. Whether the house was chosen or random, and whether anyone inside knew whoever set it, is not established — and those are exactly the blanks a rumor fills for free.

What a criminal charge is — and what it is not

Nobody has been charged in this case, and this section is here for the day someone is — because the moment a name appears, the temptation to treat that name as an answer becomes overwhelming.

A charge is an accusation. It is a sworn allegation that a crime occurred and that a particular person committed it. It is enough to arrest someone and start a case. It is not a finding of fact, not a verdict and not evidence of anything.

Anyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. That is not a courtesy this site extends; it is how the system works. The State carries the entire burden, the accused carries none of it, and the presumption survives an arrest, a booking photograph and every headline in between. Only a verdict or a plea defeats it.

Each step between accusation and conviction can end the case: a prosecutor can dismiss, a grand jury can decline to indict, evidence can be suppressed, a jury can acquit. In arson cases the distance is especially wide, because proving a fire was set and proving who set it are separate problems.

So this page names nobody, and it will not repeat a name that reaches it without a charge attached. If you came here searching for a name, we do not have one, and we would rather send you away empty-handed than with someone's life ruined by our guess.

The $10,000 reward, and who is actually offering it

All five outlets reported the reward, and the wording sets a condition most people skim past.

FOX 5 Atlanta reported that "Georgia Arson Control Inc. is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible." WSB-TV reported the same offer in nearly identical terms, and CBS News Atlanta reported a reward "of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction." The Georgia Sun reported up to $10,000 "for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever set the fire." WSB Radio framed it through "The Georgia Arson Control Hotline, which offers a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest."

Three things to take from that paragraph. "Up to" is doing work — a maximum is not a fixed payment, and programs of this kind assess what a tip actually contributed. "Arrest and conviction" is a high bar in four of the five formulations; a tip that helps but does not carry a case to its end may not meet the stated condition. And Georgia Arson Control Inc. is not the investigating agency — it is the organization putting money behind information, while the investigation belongs to Gwinnett County. Confusing the two determines who you are actually talking to when you call.

How to give investigators a tip

Two numbers appear in this coverage, published by three of the five outlets.

WSB-TV reported: "Persons with information should call the Gwinnett Fire Investigation Section at 678-518-4890 or the Georgia Arson Control Hotline at 1-800-282-5804." The Georgia Sun published the same pair and noted that anonymous tips are accepted.

• Gwinnett Fire Investigation Section — 678-518-4890. The county investigators working the cause-and-origin file
• Georgia Arson Control Hotline — 1-800-282-5804. The reward-program line, which The Georgia Sun reports accepts anonymous tips

If you are weighing whether what you have is worth a call, a rule of thumb: investigators want observations, not theories. A time, a direction someone walked, a vehicle you did not recognize, what you smelled or heard, and above all anything you recorded — a doorbell camera, a dash camera, a security camera pointed anywhere near that area in the early hours of Aug. 5. Footage nobody thinks to mention is the most commonly wasted evidence in a fire case, and cameras overwrite themselves within days.

Attention: do not go looking for the person yourself, and do not post accusations about a neighbor online. Naming the wrong person publicly is its own kind of harm, and it can damage a case that has to survive a courtroom.

Who investigates a fire in Georgia

Readers routinely assume "the fire marshal" investigates every fire, or that police do. In Georgia the work is split, which is why this story attributes everything to a county fire agency.

The distinction between rows two and four is the one to carry away. A fire investigator answers "what started this," and that question was answered. A criminal investigator answers "who did it," and that one is open — CBS News Atlanta is the outlet that reported it remains so.

How arson investigators reach a cause

This section is general background about how cause-and-origin work is done. None of it describes what investigators found in this specific house, because those findings have not been published in the reporting we relied on.

The work runs backward from the way people imagine it. Investigators do not start by looking for a culprit; they start by locating where the fire began, then ask what could have started it there.

Finding the origin means reading the structure. Fire leaves patterns — depth of char, the direction damage tapers, what survived at floor level versus ceiling level, how glass broke, which side of a stud burned — and investigators work back toward the smallest area they can defend as the point of origin.

Then comes elimination. In that area, every plausible accidental ignition source has to be ruled out: the outlet, the appliance, the wiring, the heater, the smoking material, the candle, the cooking equipment. An incendiary classification is generally reached when the accidental causes have been eliminated and the remaining evidence indicates deliberate ignition — fire where fire had no business being, more than one point of origin, ignitable liquid patterns, or a burn that cannot be reconciled with anything that belonged there.

Alongside that runs everything not physical: accounts from people who were there, the timeline, alarm and utility records, what nearby cameras captured. That is why a tip line goes up with an incendiary ruling — the building has said most of what it can. It is also why arson cases stay open. A cause can be firm within days; attaching a person to it can take months, and some cases are never solved.

What Georgia law calls arson

Georgia divides arson into degrees by statute. First degree arson, O.C.G.A. § 16-7-60, is the provision covering the knowing damage of a dwelling house and certain other structures by fire or explosive, with lesser degrees reaching other buildings and property. The degrees exist because the law treats burning a place where people live as more serious than burning an empty structure.

Two elements matter in any arson prosecution, and a fire report satisfies neither. The State must prove the fire was knowingly set, and it must prove that particular person set it. An incendiary ruling can help with the first. It does nothing about the second.

This is general background, not a description of any charge in this case. No one has been charged in the Camp Perrin Road fire in the reporting we relied on, and nothing here should be read as an accusation against any person.

What an arson ruling changes about a fire

An incendiary classification is not a footnote. It changes what happens next in several directions at once.

It converts a fire into a crime scene, with controlled access and evidence preserved differently. It brings criminal investigators alongside fire investigators. And it changes what is released — once a case is a live criminal investigation, the documents the public can obtain shrink until it closes.

It also changes the insurance posture. Losses ruled incendiary are examined far more closely than accidental ones, and claims commonly move slowly while the cause question is open. Nothing in the reporting we relied on describes this household's insurance situation, and we will not speculate about it.

And it changes the neighborhood. An accidental house fire is a tragedy at one address. A fire someone set at 5 in the morning, in a house where six adults were living, is a different fact for everyone on that road — which is why the tip lines above are worth reading twice.

How to get a fire report in Gwinnett County

This is the most-searched practical question after a house fire, usually from residents, landlords and insurers, so here is how the process works in Georgia in general terms.

A fire incident report is a public record, requested from the fire department that responded — the county agency — not from a news outlet or the state. Requests are made under the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 and the sections that follow it.

• Ask the responding agency. For a county-served fire in Gwinnett, that is the Gwinnett County Fire Department's records function, not a city police department
• Identify the incident precisely — date, approximate time, the block and the type of incident. A request an agency cannot match to a record gets bounced
• Expect a response window, not an instant answer. The Act generally requires a response within three business days: the record, an explanation of why it is withheld, or a timetable
• Expect fees on large requests for search and copying time beyond an initial free allotment

Attention: records that would disclose an active criminal investigation are routinely withheld until it closes. In a fire ruled incendiary and still open, the basic incident record may be available while the cause-and-origin narrative is not. That is the standard posture on an unsolved arson file, and being told no is not a sign anyone is hiding something from you specifically.

The Local Alert has not obtained any record in this case. Everything here comes from the five named outlets linked below.

What a household displaced by fire has to sort out

Six adults lost the use of a house on Aug. 5. CBS News Atlanta reported the fire severely damaged the home, and FOX 5 Atlanta, WSB-TV, CBS News Atlanta, WSB Radio and The Georgia Sun each described the six as displaced. All five reported that the American Red Cross assisted them. Where they are staying now is not established in the reporting we relied on, so the rest of this section is general rather than about them.

A displaced household runs several clocks at once. The shelter clock is immediate. The documentation clock covers identification, prescriptions, benefits paperwork and everything else that lived in a drawer. The insurance clock runs on the policy's terms and, in a fire under criminal investigation, frequently runs slowly. The housing clock is longest.

Renters and owners are in genuinely different positions, and people learn the distinction at the worst possible moment. A landlord's policy covers the building. It does not cover a tenant's belongings and does not pay a tenant's temporary housing. That is what renters insurance does, when it exists.

Two general cautions for anyone in that position, in this fire or any other. Nothing obligates anyone to sign a document the day after a fire, and those days are exactly when unsolicited offers arrive. And a recorded statement given quickly is still a recorded statement, whoever asked for it.

What this escape shows about getting out

Six adults were in a house before dawn and all six were outside before the first engine arrived. How they got out is not established in the reporting we relied on, and we will not reconstruct it. But the outcome is why this page carries no victim's name. The points below are standard guidance, not claims about this house.

• Working smoke alarms on every level and outside every sleeping area. A fire before dawn starts while everyone in the building is unconscious. The alarm is the only thing awake
• Two ways out of every bedroom, and a window that actually opens
• A meeting point outside, far enough from the structure that a headcount happens in the yard rather than in the smoke
• Get out and stay out. Nothing inside is worth a second trip. Crews searched this home to confirm everyone was out, per WSB Radio, and that search is the most hazardous work on a fire ground
• Call from outside, not from the hallway
• In a shared house, agree on the plan out loud — six adults means six people who need the same exit and the same meeting point

What we don't know yet

Nothing above is filled in by inference. This page records what named outlets established and does not revisit itself as the case develops. For the current status of an open investigation, call the agency named above.

If this fire touched your household

Six people got out of a burning house before dawn and, according to investigators, someone put them in that position deliberately. If that was your household or your road, a few plain things are worth knowing.

The answers sit in different offices, on different clocks. The Gwinnett Fire Investigation Section holds the cause-and-origin file. A criminal case, if one is ever brought, belongs to law enforcement and then a prosecutor. An insurer holds the loss. None moves on your schedule.

If you saw or recorded anything near the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE in the early hours of Aug. 5: 678-518-4890 for the Gwinnett Fire Investigation Section, 1-800-282-5804 for the Georgia Arson Control Hotline, which The Georgia Sun reports accepts anonymous tips.

The Local Alert is not a law enforcement agency and not a law firm, and cannot tell you what to say to anyone who calls.

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Frequently asked questions

What happened on Camp Perrin Road in Lawrenceville, Georgia?
A house fire broke out at a home in the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, on Aug. 5, 2026. FOX 5 Atlanta, WSB-TV, CBS News Atlanta, WSB Radio and The Georgia Sun all reported that fire investigators determined the fire was intentionally set. CBS News Atlanta reported that the fire severely damaged the home and displaced six adults, and attributed the finding to Gwinnett County fire investigators. Every source we read reported that everyone inside got out before firefighters arrived and that no injuries were reported.

Was the Lawrenceville house fire arson?
Investigators say yes. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that on-scene fire investigators concluded the cause of the blaze was incendiary. WSB-TV reported that fire investigators determined the fire was incendiary, meaning it was intentionally started. CBS News Atlanta reported that Gwinnett County fire investigators believe the fire was intentionally set. WSB Radio reported that investigators determined the fire was intentionally set. The Georgia Sun reported that the fire has been ruled arson. That is a finding about the fire itself, not a finding about any person.

Where exactly was the Lawrenceville house fire?
In the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia. FOX 5 Atlanta, CBS News Atlanta, WSB Radio and The Georgia Sun each placed it in that block, and WSB-TV named Camp Perrin Road NE. WSB Radio described the structure as a single-family home. A block reference is not a street number, and The Local Alert is not going to estimate a house number or identify the property.

What time did the Camp Perrin Road fire start?
The dispatch time is reported inconsistently, and we publish all three versions rather than pick one. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that fire crews rushed to the 700 block of Camp Perrin Road NE at 5:22 a.m. on Aug. 5. CBS News Atlanta reported that firefighters were called around 5:14 a.m. on Aug. 5, and The Georgia Sun also reported 5:14 a.m. on August 5. WSB-TV reported that firefighters were called around 5 a.m. on August 5. All four figures describe when the fire service was called or arrived, which is not the same as when the fire was set or when it started.

Was anyone hurt in the Lawrenceville house fire?
No injuries were reported. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that all six adult residents managed to escape safely before firefighters arrived and that no injuries were reported. WSB-TV reported that everyone inside had escaped before firefighters arrived and no injuries were reported. CBS News Atlanta reported that investigators said everyone escaped before crews arrived. WSB Radio reported that crews searched the home and determined everyone inside had made it out safely. The Georgia Sun reported that no one was hurt.

How many people lived in the home?
Six adults. FOX 5 Atlanta described all six adult residents escaping safely. CBS News Atlanta reported that the fire displaced six adults. WSB Radio reported that six adults were displaced. The Georgia Sun reported that six adults who lived in the home had already escaped before firefighters arrived. None of the sources we read published their names, and The Local Alert is not going to name them.

Has anyone been arrested for the Lawrenceville arson?
Not in the reporting reviewed for this page. CBS News Atlanta reported that investigators said the fire was intentionally set, but the case remains under investigation. No suspect is named in any source we relied on, and The Local Alert is not going to describe, hint at or characterize a person nobody has identified. Should anyone be charged in this case, that person would be presumed innocent unless and until the State proved otherwise in court.

Is there a reward in the Lawrenceville arson case?
Yes. Georgia Arson Control Inc. is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta, WSB-TV, CBS News Atlanta, WSB Radio and The Georgia Sun. Read the condition carefully: the wording reported is arrest and conviction, not simply a tip. Georgia Arson Control Inc. is a reward organization, not the investigating agency.

How do I report a tip about the Lawrenceville fire?
WSB-TV reported that persons with information should call the Gwinnett Fire Investigation Section at 678-518-4890 or the Georgia Arson Control Hotline at 1-800-282-5804. The Georgia Sun published the same two numbers and noted that anonymous tips are accepted. Investigators generally want dates, times, vehicles, direction of travel and anything recorded, rather than conclusions about who is responsible.

What does incendiary mean in a fire investigation?
Incendiary is the cause classification investigators use when the evidence indicates a fire was deliberately ignited in a place or manner where fire should not have been. WSB-TV spelled that out in plain language, reporting that fire investigators determined the fire was incendiary, meaning it was intentionally started. It is a finding about how the fire began. It does not identify a person, assign a motive or establish that any particular individual did anything.

Who investigates fires in Gwinnett County, Georgia?
The Gwinnett County Fire Department responds to fires in the county, and its Fire Investigation Section determines cause and origin. CBS News Atlanta attributed the finding in this case to Gwinnett County fire investigators. WSB-TV and The Georgia Sun both directed people with information to the Gwinnett Fire Investigation Section at 678-518-4890. Georgia Arson Control Inc., which is offering the reward, is not conducting the investigation.

What is arson under Georgia law?
Georgia divides arson into degrees by statute. First degree arson, O.C.G.A. section 16-7-60, is the provision that covers knowingly damaging a dwelling house and certain other structures by fire or explosive, with lesser degrees covering other buildings and property. This is general background about Georgia law and is not a description of a charge in this case. No one has been charged in the Camp Perrin Road fire in any source we relied on.

How do I get a copy of a Gwinnett County fire report?
Fire incident reports in Georgia are public records requested from the fire department that responded, under the Georgia Open Records Act. Requests are made to the county agency rather than to a news outlet, and the agency generally has three business days to respond, produce the record or explain why it is being withheld. Expect a narrow release while a case is open. Records that would disclose an active criminal investigation are routinely withheld until that investigation closes, which frequently means the cause-and-origin file in an arson case is not released while the case is unsolved.

What is the difference between the state fire marshal and a county fire department?
They are different offices with different jobs, and they are frequently confused. A county fire department suppresses the fire and, through its own investigation section, determines cause and origin. The Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner is the state-level office in Georgia, handling matters such as fire safety inspections and state fire investigation support. Local police and sheriffs handle criminal enforcement. In this case the sources we read point to the Gwinnett County side, naming Gwinnett County fire investigators and the Gwinnett Fire Investigation Section.

What do we still not know about this fire?
A great deal. There is no named suspect in the reporting we relied on, no stated motive, no exact street address, no identification of the six adults, no description of what was used to start the fire, no dollar figure for the damage and no account of where the six people are living now. The dispatch time itself differs between outlets. The Local Alert does not fill blanks like these by inference.