New Hampshire Firefighter Admits to Setting Fires in Rockingham County
The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
(TNS)
A New Hampshire firefighter was sentenced to at least a year in jail after pleading guilty to intentionally setting fires in various Rockingham County communities.
Austen M. Cooper of Raymond pleaded guilty in Rockingham County Superior Court to three counts of felony arson to real estate and one count of felony possession of an infernal machine May 12, according to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
Through a “lengthy and complicated serial arson” investigation that started four years ago, investigators with the Fire Marshal’s Office found that Cooper set brush fires along the Rockingham Recreational Rail Trail in Raymond, near Prescott Road in Raymond, within the John B. Folsom Conservation Land and on Joshua Lane in Epping between April and May 2022.
Investigators also determined Cooper set a structure at the Welch Baseball Fields on Fremont Road in Raymond on July 30, 2022.
In Epping, investigators determined Cooper left an incendiary device behind, leading to the possession of an infernal machines charge.
Cooper formerly lived in Huntingburg, Indiana, but was a certified firefighter in New Hampshire when he committed the offenses. He’ll serve 19 months, with 14 remaining on his sentence. Cooper has been incarcerated since being apprehended in Indiana and remitted to New Hampshire by the U.S. Marshals Service in December 2025.
If Cooper is found to have violates his 10-year probationary period after his release, he’ll be sent to state prison for a sentence as long as five years. Rockingham County Superior Court prohibited Cooper from applying to or becoming a member of any fire department, fire service or other emergency response service.
The State Fire Marshal's Office is working with the New Hampshire Division of Fire Standards and Training & Emergency Medical Services, seeking the revocation of Cooper’s New Hampshire firefighter certifications.
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