A fire in Southeast Roanoke that injured three people Saturday was intentionally set by an arsonist who hasn't been arrested, a fire department spokeswoman said Tuesday. The three victims were seriously hurt fleeing the blaze. Their conditions weren't available Tuesday, said Roanoke Fire-EMS spokeswoman Tiffany Bradbury.

Four people were at the house in the 100 block of Ninth Street when the fire broke out just before 10 p.m. Two people suffered broken bones while escaping and a third was severely burned, fire officials have said.

A search warrant filed Monday in Roanoke Circuit Court sought matches, chemicals, accelerants and anything else that could have been used to set the fire. Police also sought the clothing of a resident.

Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call Crime Line at 344-8500.

-- Amanda Codispoti

MONTGOMERY CO.

Early morning wreck closes lane on I-81

A tractor-trailer hauling produce smashed an Interstate 81 guardrail and flipped, forcing police to close a northbound lane of the highway for about five hours Tuesday morning, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said. The lane, at mile marker 123, reopened about 7:35 a.m. after workers cleared vegetables and debris from the vehicle, the Virginia Department of Transportation said.

The tractor-trailer, driven by Fazil Yilmaz of New York, hit the left guardrail on the northbound side of the highway at 2 a.m., the sheriff's office said in a statement. The truck flipped onto its side and the trailer split, the sheriff's office said.

Charges are pending against Yilmaz, the sheriff's office said.

-- Amanda Codispoti

BEDFORD COUNTY

Man, 20, pleads guilty in 2nd of 3 bank cases

A North Carolina man already serving prison time for robbing a Roanoke bank pleaded guilty Tuesday to also robbing a Bedford County bank.

William M. Smitherman, 20, of Clemmons, N.C., additionally is accused of robbing a bank in Galax.

Authorities said that Smitherman went on a bank-robbing spree early last year, robbing First Citizens banks in Galax and Roanoke in January 2009, then a SunTrust bank in Forest the next month.

Smitherman pleaded guilty in October to robbing the Roanoke bank and was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison.

A sentencing date has not yet been set in Bedford County Circuit Court, where he pleaded guilty Tuesday. He is scheduled to appear in court in Carroll County on March 25 in connection with the Galax robbery.

-- Rex Bowman