Asheville, North Carolina, US - Investigators believe that Tuesdays fire at the Asheville West US Armed Forces Recruiting Station on Regent Park Boulevard was set deliberately. Firefighters responded to the blaze early Tuesday morning to find flames coming from the inside of a storage closet in the Marine recruiting offices of the locked building. Smoke also caused damages at the neighboring Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting offices, and a state lottery office.

“All the accidental causes have been ruled out, so it’s being deemed an arson fire,” Buddy Thompson of the Asheville-Buncombe Arson Task Force, said Thursday. Traces of what is believed to be a flammable liquid were sent to the State Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh.

Marine recruiter, Gunnery Sgt. Scott Guise said "our office is pretty much destroyed" and that he didn't know when they would be able to reopen. Damages are estimated at $50,000 and recruiters have been relocated to Hendersonville, 25 miles away.