Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
Three Louisiana firefighters are among six men charged with a string of arson fires. The six, all residents of Allen Parish, have been charged with setting fire to residential and commercial buildings in Oakdale.
Oakdale Mayor Gene Paul was quoted by KPLC as saying:
- “I know pretty much all of them personally and they’re great human beings. You would have never thought this.”
- “We thought very much that they had the interest of the city at heart, surrounding area, the safety of the people. I mean, they just seemed like top notch, A-1 firefighters. That what they loved and they were dedicated. I had no knowledge, I never dreamed something like this was going to happen.”
- “My understanding is it’s just they just loved fires. They loved excitement and just wanted to put fires out. They didn’t want to hurt anyone. All the buildings were empty, not occupied. They just wanted to put the fires out. Matter of fact, they responded to the fires.”
- “An incident similar to this happened in 2011 with some of our volunteer firemen, course it was before my reign. But five years later to have similar incidents happen again is just devastating.”
The firefighters were members of the Oakdale Fire Department and the Allen Parish District 6 Fire Department.
