By Rex Bowman
Richmond Times-Dispatch
ALLEGHANY, Va. -- Two Alleghany County firefighters are accused of setting a house on fire, and investigators believe the pair might have been behind a string of local blazes.
Authorities yesterday charged Nicholas Brackenridge, 21, of Clifton Forge, and Christopher Boyd, 19, of Iron Gate, each with arson and conspiracy to commit arson, said Sgt. Dwaine Paxton of the Alleghany Sheriff’s Office.
Paxton said the charges relate to the Oct. 16 burning of a vacant house just north of Clifton Forge.
Brackenridge is a member of the Clifton Forge Volunteer Fire Department. Boyd volunteers with the Iron Gate department. Neither could be reached for comment.
The Oct. 16 fire has been connected to four fires in Alleghany, two in neighboring Botetourt County and one in Clifton Forge, Paxton said. No one has been injured in the blazes, he said.
“They were vacant dwellings — some were being used for storage, some were just unoccupied,” he said.
Paxton said investigators will also file juvenile charges against an 18-year-old man suspected of taking part in some of the earlier fires. The man, who was a volunteer with the Iron Gate department, will be charged as a juvenile because he was 17 at the time of the fires, Paxton said.
Copyright 2007 Richmond Times - Dispatch
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News