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Sep. 4--An Eagan volunteer firefighter was jailed early today after Inver Grove Heights police caught him speeding away in a pickup truck from a portable toilet that had been set afire.
Mike Vruno, 21, is being held in the Dakota County jail on suspicion of arson and criminal damage to property. Another man, Thomas John Schmidt, 20, of Inver Grove Heights, also was arrested.
Just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday, police received a report of a portable bathroom on fire in Rich Valley Park on the city's south side, said Inver Grove Heights Police Lt. Jerry Salmey. Officers located the fire near the tennis courts at the park, which is at 1641 105th St. An officer pulled over a blue pickup truck near the fire on 102nd Street near Barnes Way as it drove out of the area, traveling faster than the speed limit, Salmey said. Eagan city officials were notified early today of the arrest. Vruno was being held on suspicion of second-degree arson and criminal damage to property, with charges expected today or Monday.
Vruno has just under two years of service with the fire department, officials said.
"We were shocked and saddened to learn that one of our paid-on-call firefighters is one of the suspects in an arson case in a neighboring jurisdiction," Eagan Fire Chief Mike Scott said in a written statement.
"Alleged firefighter arson is rare, but extremely serious. That's why we will be looking at the facts of this case, as it develops, to see what we can learn from this incident and apply to our training and evaluation."
Vruno, who is paid a $13 stipend per fire call, lives in Eagan's main fire station, one of the first volunteer firefighters participating in a firefighter residence program designed to reduce turnover on the roster. He is a college student majoring in fire science.
In December 2007, Vruno had moved out of his parents' home into the fire department's ambulance-crew quarters on Pilot Knob Road, where he lives rent free.
"It's just nice to be out of home and be able to make every front-line truck while I'm here," he said in an interview in June.
The city, in its written statement, said such cases should not cast a pall on other firefighters: "A 2003 federal study of the incidence of firefighter arson concluded numbers are hard to come by but stated, 'With over one million volunteer and paid firefighters, the number of those who cause fires represents only a fraction of the number who otherwise serve honorably.'"
