A raging wildfire that torched some 1,300 acres of national parkland in Ohio was due to a depressed emergency responder who did it to keep local firefighters from getting bored, according to a criminal complaint first obtained by The Daily Beast.
50-year-old James A. Bartels, was a 911 dispatcher for Gallia County, Ohio, and an administrator with the Greenfield Township Volunteer Fire Department. He has been charged with “timber set afire,” the federal justice system’s version of arson. Each count is accompanied with up to five years of prison time.
According to the complaint, Bartels set at least 24 fires in the Wayne National Forest over several months. The man’s truck was spotted at the scene of multiple fires within minutes of their ignition, and said he set the fires to “give the boys something to do and distract himself from depression.”
Source: Daily Beast
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