A Peru woman was arrested on arson charges, after officials believe she started a garage fire that also caused damage to several other garages in the area. 

The Peru Fire Department and law enforcement were called to E Fifth St in Peru just before 6am on August 11 on a report of a structure fire. After arriving on scene with officers from the Peru Police Department, they soon located a detached garage fully engulfed in flames. As fighterfighters worked to extinguish the blaze at the garage, another fire was reported to dispatch from the alley nearby. Deputies from the Miami County Sheriff's Office soon responded to help with the chaos, and officials were luckily able to extinguish the fire before any more structures were able to ignite. An investigation on blaze was soon started. 

Just before 10:30am the same day, an off-duty Peru Police Officer observed a female walking, who appeared to have started a grass fire with an item of clothing in the area of US 24 and State Rd 19. Noticing the fire was rapidly growing, the off-duty officer quickly extinguished the blaze and reported to on-duty officers that the female had fled into a nearby wooded area. 

Officers soon located the woman, soon identified as 50-year-old Adrienne Hardy, a resident of Peru. Connecting the evidence from the scene of the fire on East Fifth St, Hardy was taken into custody and transported to the Peru Police Department, where she was interviewed by detectives and charged with Arson, a Level 4 Felony, and Criminal Mischief, a Class B Misdemeanor. The investigation is still, however, ongoing at this time. 

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