Firefighter to firestarter – Opp man admits to other fires
Published 12:01 am Thursday, August 2, 2012
The firefighter charged with setting fire to an unoccupied mobile home in Opp Sunday has confessed to starting other fires in the area, officials said Wednes-day.
Stephen Holmes, spokes-man for the state fire marshal’s office, said William Brad Burleson, 22, was charged with arson II in connection with a Covala Road fire just off of U.S. 331, has now confessed to starting grass, brush and hay fires in the Opp area, and further charges are pending against him.
Burleson was arrested Monday after the Opp Fire Department responded to a Sunday evening structure fire at a vacant structure that had no power.
A subsequent investigation by the fire marshal’s office, OFD, and the Opp Police Department led to the conclusion that the fire was intentionally set, Holmes said in a press release issued by the department on Wednesday.
Burleson has been a firefighter with OFD for two years, officials said Tuesday.
He was booked into the Covington County Jail on a $20,000 bond Sunday and has since made bond.
-Kendra Bolling