Wednesday, August 25, 1999

Following a joint investigation by the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Louisiana Fire Marshal’s Office, a volunteer fireman has been arrested and charged with one count of simple arson.

Sheriff’s Investigator Jay Long said Donald Edward Kerry, 25, of 3323 Redbud Lane, was arrested Aug. 16 and charged with setting an abandoned house on fire April 15 on Bagley Road in Southeast Caddo Parish. Kerry, a volunteer firefighter with Caddo Fire District No. 9, was booked at the Caddo Correctional Center on one count of simple arson. He remains in the parish jail under a $50,000 bond.

Long said Kerry is a suspect in four other suspicious fires in the same part of the parish in the same time period. Additional charges are pending the outcome of that investigation.

"In some cases," Deputy State Fire Marshal Jim Alexander said, "a fireman simply wants to use the fire district’s equipment and will set a fire just to drive the fire truck and use the equipment to put out the fire."

Alexander said it is a more common occurrence than most people think. "It’s more prevalent in smaller fire districts that have relatively little activity," he continued. "It is especially prevalent when a fire district has acquired a new piece of fire-fighting equipment. When this happens, that firefighter doesn’t take into consideration the danger to citizens, both in the area where the fire was set and those on the roads en route to the location."

Alexander suggested that "one way to help prevent this occurrence is for fire districts to conduct more ‘live drills’ under controlled circumstances to give the volunteers more experience in fighting fires."