Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND, Md. — A Baltimore Pike volunteer firefighter was charged with arson Wednesday in connection with a string of city fires, including two that were reported in the city’s South End early Wednesday.
Patrick Levi Kneisley, 23, of Virginia Avenue, Cumberland, was being held late Wednesday on $250,000 bond at the Allegany County Detention Center, according to a news release from the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Kneisley was implicated in a Oct. 1 incident involving a vehicle fire that was determined to be intentionally set in the 300 block of North Centre Street. Five additional fires have occurred since that time, including storage containers, brush piles and trash cans located at the Cumberland Police Department gun range, investigators said. The Wednesday incidents included a fire in a garage at 123 E. Roberts St. that was reported at 12:48 a.m. and a vehicle fire in the 1000 block of Lexington Avenue at 2:34 a.m. Cumberland firefighters extinguished both of those blazes.
Kneisley’s charges include four counts of second-degree arson, one count of attempted second-degree arson, four counts of first-degree malicious burning and three counts of malicious burning. Additional charges include malicious destruction of property, arson of a trash container, trespassing and theft.
Investigators said total damage resulting from the fires is estimated at about $40,000. A motive was not established at the time of the arrest, investigators said.
Kneisley has been suspended from the Baltimore Pike department pending the outcome of the investigation.
The arrest was the result of a joint investigation involving the Fire Marshal’s Office and the Cumberland Fire Department with the assistance of the Cumberland Police Department.
The investigation will continue to identify if Kneisley is responsible for any other fires in the area.
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