By Terry Hillig
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
WILSONVILLE, Mo. — Inhabitants of this tiny town are wondering what might have motivated two volunteer firefighters to set fire to a vacant house that was being renovated.
Macoupin County prosecutor Vince Moreth alleges that’s what happened in the early-morning hours of Oct. 30 when flames destroyed a house in the 300 block of Rice Street.
Moreth filed charges last week alleging the fire was set by Jason D. Kimble, 31, and Billy J. Katava, 19, both of Wilsonville and both volunteer firefighters.
No one was injured in the fire, authorities said.
Wilsonville is a village of 600 in southern Macoupin County, about 40 miles northeast of St. Louis.
Carol Masinelli, 65, was asleep in her house at 304 Rice Street when she was awakened by her dog Sam, a Pomeranian-poodle mix.
Masinelli and her son Jason, 27, were able to get out of their house safely. Firefighters arrived quickly and prevented the fire from spreading, but the heat melted shingles and destroyed a satellite TV dish mounted on the Masinellis’ roof.
Kimble and Katava are each charged with arson and aggravated arson. The penalty for arson, a Class 2 felony, ranges from probation to three to seven years in prison.
The penalty for aggravated arson, a Class X felony, is six to 30 years in prison with no possibility of probation. An arson is “aggravated” if it threatens a building where people are present.
Unit 7 Fire District Chief Larry Norville said that if the suspects set the fire, they endangered not only the people next door but their fellow firefighters.
He said investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office had found no natural cause for the fire.
Norville interviewed the two suspects and two other Wilsonville firefighters a few weeks after the fire, then suspended all four of them. He declined to say why they had come under suspicion.
Kimble has resigned from the department, Norville said. Katava and the other two firefighters remain under suspension.
Norville said the house had been undergoing renovation for many months and was something of an eyesore. But he said there was no apparent financial motive for the fire - volunteer firefighters get no pay.
Carol Masinelli said anyone familiar with the vacant house next to hers would wonder how it had caught on fire.
“There was no gas, there were no lights, no nothing, and a basement full of water,” she said. “How could it catch fire?”