Nine suspected arson fires in Macoupin County damage property, injure firefighter
The Macoupin County Sheriff’s Office is looking for help from the public and other agencies to investigate a string of suspected arson fires that have so far damaged seven barns and an abandoned house and have injured a firefighter.
Macoupin County Sheriff Shawn Kahl said at least four witnesses have reported seeing a pickup truck near the fires. He is asking anyone who sees the truck or other suspicious vehicles to report their license plate information.
The truck was described as a white Ford with a chrome grill. It has front-end damage, a damaged front license plate, a board in place of the back tailgate and a loud exhaust. Different witnesses have said they saw one or two people inside the truck.
On Saturday, after the ninth fire, Kahl said he planned to put a task force together to help with the investigation, which was first reported by KMOX. The Illinois State Fire Marshal’s arson division is also involved.
Kahl estimated that the fires have taken place over a span of 30 miles in Macoupin County.
They started in late January and targeted four barns full of hay over the period of a month, according to Kahl. Those fires were around Carlinville, Gillespie and the Northwestern Fire Protection District, according to a news release from the State Fire Marshal.
On Wednesday, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies responded to four more fires in a little over four hours near Carlinville and Mount Olive. Kahl said a volunteer firefighter from the Carlinville Fire District was injured that day. The sheriff was briefed by the fire district but didn’t learn the exact details of how the firefighter was injured.
“His injuries are enough that he’s not going to be able to work for a week,” Kahl said of the man’s full-time job outside of his volunteer duties.
Of the four fires on Wednesday, three were at barns. Hay bales were also set on fire, but the blaze didn’t spread to some nearby barns.
There was another fire believed to be arson Friday evening at an abandoned house northeast of Carlinville. It is the ninth that the sheriff’s office has investigated.
“People are really getting concerned, people that live out in the country and have barns on their property,” Kahl said. “It’s real easy for these to spread from a barn to other structures.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the state’s arson hotline at 800-252-2947; the Macoupin/Montgomery Crime Stoppers at 800-352-1036; or the sheriff’s office at 217-854-3135, extension 1.
This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 2:32 PM.
