Little Rock library to reopen after fire, community reacts

STONE COUNTY, Ark. – Sue Cowan Williams Library is set to re-open Thursday, after being closed due to a fire that Little Rock Fire Department officials said was intentional.

“Doesn’t make any sense. Especially in this Dunbar community, neighborhood,” Archie Hearne, who lives down the street from the library, said. “The school’s right here – that you would want to do something like that,”

The Central Arkansas Library system’s website says surveillance video shows a person entering the restroom just before the library closed for the evening on Saturday, August 25. Then the following day the person re-appeared on cameras.

Officials with the fire department say they believe the person was hiding in the ceiling overnight. But the person has not yet been identified.

“They do have a person of interest that they are in the process of looking for now,” Little Rock Fire Department public information officer Doug Coffman said. “The damage was limited to about 15,000 dollars.”

Officials said a fire set in a mechanical closet caused the most damage. The fire department says if the fire had spread to the books, it could have been even worse.

Until the library reopens, the library said that after-school meals have been temporarily relocated to Dunbar Middle School.

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