A Baxter County man has been arrested after authorities allege he started more than a dozen brush and grass fires last week.
Trenton Lee Strain (pictured below), 43, of Clarkridge was arrested after a traffic stop on Friday, Oct. 14.
According to a media release from Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, witnesses reported seeing a man lighting wads of paper on fire and throwing them out of a pickup truck he was driving on various roads Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday, Oct. 13, authorities were dispatched to a fire that had been started on State Highway 201 North. A short time later, additional fires were reported being set in the same area. One witness reported seeing a maroon pickup truck near a fire that was spreading along with a physical description of the man inside the vehicle.
On Friday, one witness who reported seeing a man lighting wads of paper and throwing them out his pickup window followed the truck and gave the truck’s license plate number to authorities. After searching the area, deputies spotted the vehicle and conducted a stop.
Montgomery said deputies who made the stop determined the truck’s driver, Strain, was intoxicated at the time, and he was arrested for DWI. The sheriff said a lighter and wadded-up sheets of paper were found inside the vehicle.
The Clarkridge Volunteer Fire Department advised it had responded to six or seven brush and grass fires on Oct. 13 and an additional seven brush and grass fires on Oct. 14. One unoccupied structure sustained extensive damage.
Strain (pictured) is in custody on a bond of $25,000. He was booked on 14 felony counts of reckless burning and one felony count of arson. Misdemeanor counts against Strain include driving while intoxicated, refusal of intoxication test, and speeding.
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