Fire Marshal Blames Copper Thieves for $1.6M Fire in Louisiana

Thieves trying to steal copper are blamed for touching off a fire that left behind $1.6 million in damages Dec. 23 at the Peak Fibers cotton processing plant in Rayville, La.

Danny Opiel, 38, was arrested Mar. 11 and booked into the Richland Parish jail, State Fire Butch Browning. He said Chad Taylor, 35, was arrested last week in the Union Parish jail, where he was being held on an unrelated copper theft charge. Both are from West Monroe.

Opiel’s bond was set at $200,000. He was booked with arson, criminal conspiracy and two counts of burglary. It could not be immediately determined whether the two had attorneys.

Bill Atkinson, whose son co-owns Peak Fibers, said the plant is insured and is being rebuilt.

“It took eight days to get the fire out because at one point there were 7,000 bales on fire,” Atkinson said.

He said it’s a shame that so much damage was caused by people who allegedly wanted to steal a couple hundred dollars worth of copper.

“You have 10 families whose lives could have been on the line,” said Atkinson.

Fire marshal’s investigator Chip Stevens said that the break-in was obvious when he got to the plant. Some copper had been removed, he said.

“It looked to us the fire may have occurred while they were in the process of cutting something out of the structure,” he said Wednesday.

Although the fire might have been accidental, such a fire touched off during a crime counts under state law as arson, Stevens said.