Oregon Firefighter Pleads Guilty To Arson

May 28, 2003
A volunteer Corbett firefighter has pleaded guilty to arson charges, admitting that he intentionally set seven fires last summer.
CORBETT - A volunteer Corbett firefighter has pleaded guilty to arson charges, admitting that he intentionally set seven fires last summer.

Peter Traxler was sentenced to five years in prison and five years probation. He was also banned for life from serving as a firefighter in Oregon.

Traxler was a third-generation firefighter.

Prosecutors said Traxler used matches or a lit cigar to set a series of suspicious fires in the Corbett-area in 2002. Most caused minor damage; no injuries occurred.

Investigators focused in on Traxler as a suspect after discovering that he called in reports on many of the fires. And, he was the first responder to all of them.

Prosecutors believed Traxlers motive was jealously; envious of his older brother who was offered a full-time firefighting job.

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