A Baylis firefighter ended up in jail after he helped put out a mobile home fire Sunday that he now stands accused of starting.
Michael D. Rohn, 20, of Baylis is to appear in court at 9 a.m. today on a felony arson charge filed Monday by Pike County State's Attorney Frank McCartney.
Rohn is accused of setting fire to an abandoned trailer at 210 Cedar St. in Baylis that is owned by Donald Lane, McCartney said. No one was living there at the time of the fire, the prosecutor said.
The Baylis Fire Department was dispatched about 2:30 p.m. Sunday to a report of a mobile home on fire. The trailer was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. Baylis firefighters extinguished the fire with the help of Griggsville and North Pike Fire departments.
No one was injured in the fire.
Following "a brief on-scene investigation," Rohn was brought to the Pike County Sheriff's Department for questioning and then arrested on a preliminary charge of arson, Sheriff Paul Petty said.
"Essentially we had eyewitnesses' accounts that someone was present in the area before the fire started. That is what prompted us to do an investigation," Petty said. "What we found from that is the gentleman arrested was the person seen at the residence right before the fire started."
The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal assisted in the investigation.
The sheriff declined to say whether Rohn made any admission or if an accelerant was found at the scene.
"We're not releasing any evidence until Mr. McCartney reviews the entire case," Petty said.
The investigation is ongoing, but is expected to conclude by Wednesday, he added.
"At this point it doesn't appear we're learning anything more than what we already know," the sheriff said.
Baylis Fire Chief Tom Lewis said Rohn had been a member of his fire department for about two months. Rohn was immediately relieved of his duties upon his arrest and taken to the Pike County Jail, where he was being held in lieu of $15,000 bail.
To say he was shocked "is putting it mildly," Lewis said. "I've been on the department for 24 years and nothing like this has ever happened. I didn't expect this out of him."
The fire chief said Rohn lived within a block of the mobile home that had been vacant for about two years and the owner was using for storage. Lewis said he believed Rohn was employed by a farmer in Adams County.
Rohn approached the fire chief about three months ago about becoming a Baylis volunteer firefighter.
"He seemed interested and ready to learn," Lewis said.
While with the fire department Rohn had assisted in putting out a couple of grass and hay bale fires.
"This was his first structure fire," Lewis said.
Copyright 2012 - Jacksonville Journal-Courier, Ill.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
