Fires were set in house being built
Nita Birmingham
The Post and Courier
Copyright 2007 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
All Rights Reserved
HANAHAN, S.C. — A former city firefighter who claimed he was a hero for spotting a fire in an upscale house under construction last year was arrested Thursday and charged with arson, police said.
Paul Joseph Sloan, 26, of North Charleston, surrendered to Hanahan police and was booked on a charge of second-degree arson, Sgt. Matt Woodall said. Sloan is accused of starting fires Aug. 24 in the attic and master bedroom of a three-story house on Indigo Island Drive, a State Law Enforcement Division affidavit said. Sloan was a Hanahan firefighter at the time.
The roof had to be replaced after the fire, which set construction back several months. Sloan told the SLED agent that the house would have burned down if it hadn’t been for him, the affidavit said. The house was about 70 percent complete.
Sloan was off duty and told police he saw flames as he drove by around 3 a.m., but fire crews couldn’t see the flames from the road, the affidavit said. Nothing was visible until they entered the house and reached the third-floor landing leading to the attic.
Crews found that someone ignited a cardboard box filled with door molding in the attic and a piece of floor molding shoved into insulation in the master bedroom, the affidavit said.
The investigation into fire led to Sloan’s arrest on a charge that got nationwide attention. When investigators started talking about recovering evidence from the house, Sloan said his DNA would be inside because he and a former girlfriend had sex in several locations there earlier in the week.
Woodall arrested Sloan on a charge of burglary with the intent to commit fornication, which is still on the lawbooks in South Carolina. Prosecutors ultimately declined to prosecute on that charge, and Sloan pleaded guilty two months ago to unlawful entry into an enclosed place. He was fined $200.
Sloan was fired after his arrest for burglary, but he said he hoped to one day continue his career. Nothing prevents Sloan from being a firefighter, even if he is convicted of arson, state Sen. Larry Grooms of Bonneau said. Grooms hoped to change that with a bill he introduced last year, but it didn’t make it off the Senate floor. Grooms said he’ll try again this year.