By Steve Thompson
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Early Monday, a fire engine sped to a grass fire along a two-lane road in Pleasant Grove.
Thanks to a pre-dawn layer of dew, the firefighters snuffed it out within minutes, and they might have taken little note.
But for the firefighters of Dallas Fire-Rescue Station 51, this blaze was far from routine — it may have been started by one of their own, police say.
While his colleagues dealt with the fire, off-duty firefighter Michael Sean Taylor was down the road being arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated.
Dallas police say an officer who encountered the blaze about 3 a.m. spotted Mr. Taylor, 34, tossing some sort of liquid into it.
When Mr. Taylor noticed the officer watching, police say, he got into his black 2000 Ford pickup and drove off.
After stopping the pickup, the officer found a red gasoline can inside and Mr. Taylor at the wheel, smelling of alcohol, police say.
With slurred speech and bloodshot eyes, the firefighter failed a field sobriety test, police say.
Later at the Dallas County Jail, a breath test indicated his blood-alcohol level was 0.139 percent, police say.
The legal limit for driving is 0.08.
Though the officer said he saw Mr. Taylor feeding the fire, police did not arrest him for that.
Fire-Rescue investigators are looking into the allegation.
“We want everyone to understand he’s innocent until proven guilty,” said Fire-Rescue spokesman Joel Lavender.
“At the same time, this situation is serious enough that we felt it necessary to place him on administrative leave.”
Mr. Taylor has been a Dallas firefighter for seven years.
He works at Station 51, about half a mile from the fire along Grady Lane.
Firefighters setting fires isn’t common, but it happens often enough that some fire-rescue agencies have assigned task forces to study the issue.
“Slowly, the fire service is shedding light on a situation that occurs rarely but which is nevertheless serious: some firefighters intentionally start fires,” said a 2003 report by the U.S. Fire Administration.
Among firefighter arsonists, “the number one motive was excitement, especially among young firefighters who were eager to put their training to practical use and to be seen as heroes to fellow firefighters and the community they served,” said the report, citing research by the FBI in the 1990s.
Others feel alienated from their departments, the report said.
Still others express a simple fascination with fire.
Lt. Lavender said he couldn’t recall from his 25 years with the agency another Dallas firefighter being accused of starting a fire.
“As a department, we’re concerned about the image and what we do as firefighters,” he said.
“But as firefighters we’re concerned about, you know, is something hurting our brother?”
Copyright 2008 The Dallas Morning News