Jorge Carvajal-Echeagaray of Salem was being held in a Peoria, Ill., jail Tuesday night on charges of manslaughter and reckless burning, a Marion County Sheriff's spokesman said.
Ashes that fell from Carvajal-Echeagaray methamphetamine pipe are thought to have started the fire which killed three people, said Deputy Kevin Rau, a Marion County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
The man's driver license indicates he lived at the same address where the fire erupted last Thursday morning.
Carvajal-Echeagaray turned himself in to the Peoria Police Department just moments before Marion County investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest, said Sgt. Jason Myers of the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
The blaze killed Jonatan Gonzalez-Marquez, 25, Leticia Ortiz-Diaz, 22, and Jordi Gonzalez-Ortiz, 2, who died of smoke inhalation, according to the Oregon State Medical Examiner.
The family lived on the third floor of the nine-unit building. Investigators believe Carvajal-Echeagaray was in the second floor apartment where the fire began.
Eric Myers, an apartment resident who ran into the burning building to help rescue occupants, recalled other residents talking about how Carvajal-Echeagaray reacted at the scene of the fire.
``This is the guy who freaked out, got in his car and drove to Kansas,'' he said.
Sgt. Jason Myers said a Marion County investigator was on his way to Illinois.
