Ernest Gibbs Didn't Start Fires; He's Being Held Because He Escaped from Goldsboro Asylum, Dec. 5, 1922

No Arrests Have Been Made for Incendiarism: Both Fires Accidental, So Far As Is Known

No arrests for incendiarism in connection with Friday’s two big fires have been made, according to W.A. Scott, deputy insurance commissioner from Raleigh, which was given out for publication today.

Reports to the effect that both of Friday’s fires ?? have been the result of a deliberate intent have gained circulation in some of the papers of the state. Acting upon the suggestion of the relief committee to counteract the influence which such rumors might have, Mr. Scott this afternoon gave out the following statement:

“I arrived in New Bern Saturday morning after the fire and have been here ever since making an investigation. Referring first to the general conflagration, I investigated that Saturday with Mr. Bryan, chief of the fire department, and found that the fire started from a terra cotta flue which had been in sue for 20 years or more. We found at least six witnesses who saw it while it was burning around the flue above the attic and under the roof and there is no evidence whatever of incendiarism.

“As to the Roper mill fire, I also have investigated that and wish to say that as to the arrest of Ernest Gibbs, colored, he was detained pending an investigation and not charged with setting fire to the mill but as an escaped man from the asylum at Goldsboro. It is true that he had worked with the Roper Lumber co. at one time and had quite a lot of trouble there. He had been arrested and charged with cutting the belts and, on trial, he was adjudged insane and committed to the asylum at Goldsboro. He was indicted in 1918 along with Walter Smith, charged with setting fire to a house, the property of Thomas Holton, but in this case a verdict was returned of not guilty as to each of the defendants, and it so appears on the clerk of court’s records. He was suspected in regard to the recent fire on account of this previous trouble and, from the fact that he was seen in the street near the mill about 10 minutes after the alarm appeared. There is no evidence whatever that he started the fire. Ernest Gibbs is being held in the jail to be recommitted to the asylum at Goldsboro.

From the front page of The New Bern Sun-Journal, Dec. 5, 1922