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http://heraldargus.com/articles/2010/08/31...c5195049664.txt

Teen charged with arson

By Matt Fritz
Staff writer
1-866-362-2167 Ext. 13887
mfritz@heraldargus.com
Published: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 5:02 PM CDT
PLEASANT TOWNSHIP — A junior firefighter has been charged with two counts of arson in Pleasant Township.

Captain John Boyd of the La Porte County Sheriff’s Department said a 17-year-old boy from Stillwell was arrested last Friday after investigators linked him to two suspicious blazes in the area.

The investigation included seven fires, which occurred between Oct. 2, 2009, and August of 2010 in Pleasant Township.

The suspect was charged for his alleged involvement in the Oct. 2 fire, which occurred at a vacant residence at 302 West Oak in Stillwell. He was also charged with a garage fire that occurred at 115 Glendale in Stillwell on Aug. 14.

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Both structures in Stillwell were heavily damaged.

For the past 18 months, the boy has been a junior firefighter with the Pleasant Township Volunteer Fire Department.

Pleasant Township Fire Chief Phillip Bluhm said the arrest took him by surprise.

Bluhm said the boy was a help around the department and took part in firefighter practices and training sessions on a regular basis.

“He didn’t seem to have any abnormal problems that we could see or gather,” Bluhm said.

Bluhm said junior firefighters, beginning as early as 14, undergo the necessary training to qualify as a volunteer or full-time firefighter as adults.

Junior firefighters can help around the department by carrying hoses and doing other manual labor, but they cannot actually fight fires.

His arrest resulted from an investigation involving members of the sheriff’s department, the Indiana State Police, the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Michigan City Fire Department and the Portage Fire Department.

Boyd said most of the fires were initially ruled accidental.

“But by early August we had a pattern of fires and realized it was more than a coincidence,” he explained. “When you have a structure that burns with no gas, electrical or other utilities, it’s usually quite odd. That’s when we started to call in other agencies.”

He said the agencies followed up on his department’s leads, re-interviewed witnesses (sometimes three or four times) and helped narrow down suspects by mid-August.

He said his department is fairly confident one of the fires was electrical in nature after investigations by the state fire marshal’s office and the insurance company confirmed its findings. The fire just happened to be sandwiched among the other incidents.

Boyd said there were five other pole barn fires and a grass fire of suspicious origin.

Sheriff Michael Mollenhauer said no one was injured in the fires, but very well could have been.

He said it was sad the suspect was a junior firefighter.

“You hear about that with firefighters and junior firefighters every once in a while,” he said. “You get a bad apple who does it for the excitement or whatever.”

According to a sheriff’s department press release, the suspect filed a report with the sheriff’s department during the time of the investigation, alleging he was robbed at gun point while walking in the 3700 South block of 300 East. That event was alleged to have occurred on Aug. 14. The department has since determined the incident to be a fabrication.

Both charges the juvenile received were Class B felonies.

He was taken to the La Porte County Juvenile Services Center where he remains in custody.

— Stan Maddux contributed to this report