DALTON, Ga. — A Dalton man who had been wanted for arson for reportedly trying to set a neighbor’s apartment on fire in October was booked into the Whitfield County jail on Friday by the Dalton Police Department.

Nathan Gerald Inman, 33, of 316 E. Matilda St., was being held at the county jail for arson in

the first degree awaiting a bond hearing this morning in Superior Court.

According to an incident report from the Dalton Police Department, an investigation began in October. Capt. Chip Whitfield said a member of the patrol unit came into contact with Inman on Friday.

According to the report, a neighbor of Inman’s called police to report someone had tried to set her apartment on fire. She told a responding officer that earlier in the day her neighbors had been outside “causing a noise disturbance and drinking” and when she asked them to “keep it down,” they got into an argument. She told police Inman and a woman left and “roughly” 30 minutes later she heard a “woosh” and saw an “orange glow” outside her kitchen window. She said she put the fire out with a pot of water. 

The officer wrote in his report that he could smell the odor of kerosene at the back of the house and found a Crown Royal liquor bottle with kerosene in it on the back steps and a red hat in the back yard that the woman said Inman had been wearing.

Another neighbor told police Inman and “his girl” were arguing in the front yard and “had been drinking Crown Royal and were a little drunk.” He said the Crown Royal was in the car that Inman and that woman left in. He saw the argument with the other woman, and said he pushed Inman back and grabbed the woman “to keep a fight from happening.” He said he later saw Inman running from the back of the house and Inman pushed him down before leaving, but “he never saw any fire.”

The report noted that Dalton Fire Department personnel said they could smell the kerosene and told the officer they believed that because it was wet outside, only the kerosene and not the porch had burned.

“They stated that if it would have been dry outside it may have been much worse,” the report said.