NEWPORT – Police on Wednesday were investigating an early-morning, gasoline-fueled fire at Newport Plaza that damaged the exterior of one outside wall, a sidewalk and the front door of the Quiznos restaurant.

Plaza owner Gregory Lovley has offered a $500 reward in an attempt to find the arsonist or arsonists. The plaza is located at the intersection of Routes 2 and 7 and houses a supermarket, Newport Entertainment Center, a karate school, a dollar store, a video store and a doctor’s office as well as the restaurant.

Newport Police Chief Len MacDaid confirmed that the fire began in a stack of empty cardboard boxes that had been placed outside the front door of Quiznos. MacDaid said he is working on the investigation with the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

“We are just in the initial stages,” he said, but added that a sweep of the area revealed no other fire locations.

Newport firefighters were called to the plaza about 1:54 a.m., Fire Chief Fred Hickey said, and discovered at least one location in the pile of cardboard where gasoline had soaked the boxes but failed to ignite

Instead of putting a lot of water on the fire, firefighters allowed it to burn out to retain as much evidence as possible, Hickey said. Once state fire marshal Investigator Stuart Jacobs arrived at the scene and completed his investigation, water was used to put out embers.