A UTM student is being held with a $50,000 bond in the Weakley County Jail but is yet to be formally charged in connection with the explosion and fire in downtown Martin early Thursday morning.

Joseph Roberts, 24, of Atoka, will be arraigned in General Sessions Court this afternoon.

The blast left one building scattered across part of Lindell Street and started a fire that also destroyed an adjacent building. Fire officials said soda bottles filled with gasoline were used to ignite the blaze.

The building that exploded, 212 Lindell, housed Universal Martial Arts, while 210 Lindell was used primarily for storage by General Supply Co., said David Harrison, the owner of the buildings and General Supply.

Roberts held the lease on 212 Lindell, Harrison said, and was a part owner of Universal Martial Arts.

Martin fire officials estimate the damage at about $300,000 to $400,000.

Though no injuries were reported, police said the blast threw Roberts about 20 feet after he lighted the fire.

Public Safety Director J.D. Sanders said in a press conference Thursday that Roberts had confessed to the crime, though no motive was given.

“He took 15 2-liter soda bottles filled with gasoline, took the gasoline inside, sprayed it along the base of the wall along the floor and across the room in a zig-zag fashion,” Sanders said. State arson investigators and special agents with the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) were called in to assist with the investigation. Officials said while some of the agents are concentrating on determining what happened inside the building, special agents on interview teams were canvassing the area looking for possible witnesses.

Harrison said the building would be rebuilt.

“My family has been here for 100 years and we’re going to stay.”

Sanders said the incident has irrevocably altered downtown Martin. “You can’t replace 90- to 100-year-old architecture,” he said. “You can't do that even if you rebuild.”

Fire Capt. Bob Dudley said when firefighters arrived, the front and rear of the building were completely gone and the building was “fully involved.”

Dudley praised the mutual aid assistance from Sharon, Dresden, Greenfield and Union City, all of which responded to help Martin fight the blaze.

“Without Union City’s platform truck, we might have lost three to four more buildings,” Dudley said.

“Also, without the new equipment we’ve received from the city of Martin, like the 5-inch supply hoses, and the work the city has done to increase the water supply, this situation would have been a lot worse.

“I want to praise everybody for their help and hard work and assistance,” he said.

Martin Mayor Larry Taylor, who was on the scene, said that while he hated that something like this happened, he was thankful that Martin firefighters were equipped to handle the blaze as effectively as they did.

“All their training and dedication paid off in a big way and prevented the disaster from being worse,” Taylor said. “We haven’t had a fire like this in about 75 years,” Harrison said, adding that his great-grandfather’s dry goods store, E.F. Clemens, burned in the 1920s.

Where it stood is now the alley next to the Opera House Antiques building, he said.

Katherine and Alex Forst were asleep in their apartment on Broadway Street when they were awakened by the explosion. “It woke us up. I thought it was storming outside,” Katherine Forst said.

Alex Forst said he went to the window, looked out and could see the flames from the couple’s second-floor apartment. UTM students Erica Adams and Karen Saldana were northbound on Lindell Street shortly after the explosion occurred.

“We were driving up Lindell. We saw what I thought was fog. And then I saw something on the ground and it turned out to be bricks. We looked to the right and saw flames,” Adams said. She said that she swerved and narrowly missed running over the debris.

Chunks of brick and bits of glass littered the sidewalk opposite the fire for nearly a block, while firefighters knelt in the street and braced each other to aim their fire hoses into the blaze.

Two ladder trucks poured water through the top of the remaining building, which was gutted but still standing at daylight.

General Supply’s yellow sign was melted, while Opera House Antiques had a scorched side and several broken windows.

Both businesses, fire officials said, suffered heavy water and smoke damage.