A 17-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of arson following an overnight bus fire and two gas station fires within Maxwell over the past two months.
According to Story County Sheriff’s Office Captain Nicholas Lennie, the juvenile male was identified after authorities were notified of a sounding fire alarm inside the Collins-Maxwell High School in Maxwell at approximately 3:32 a.m. on Wednesday. “The deputies showed up, walked around the school, and made it around to where the buses were,” he said. “It still was not clear that there had been a bus fire, because it was pretty much self-extinguished by the time they got to it. Right about that time, the bus horn started to honk, and that’s what drew the attention of the deputy.”
It is believed that smoke found its way inside the nearby high school building, triggering the alarm, which was reported by a neighbor. “It’s unknown how long the alarm had been going off,” Lennie explained. “They’re doing some construction there, and those alarms go on and off quite a bit.”
“The main bus door was opened up. It didn’t appear to have been locked. This fire was started on the inside of the bus and really was contained to the inside of the bus. [Deputies] could see that the bus was smoky and had been charred.”
The bus fire comes just weeks after two separate fires were started at the local Casey’s General Store, one of which occurred during business hours.
Lennie noted that investigators had gathered a significant volume of evidence regarding the two previous suspected arsons in town. However, Wednesday morning’s school bus incident sealed the deal on the arrest. “There was good video surveillance of the fire from last night,” Lennie commented. “It clearly led us to the juvenile individual that we just charged.
“That same individual was a suspect in the other two fires that we had been looking at. The video surveillance confirmed his involvement last night, and then further investigation and interviews with that suspect gave us the probable cause for the Casey’s fires as well.”
The juvenile suspect’s name is not being released at this time. He was taken into custody and transported to the Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center in Eldora. He faces the following charges:
- First-Degree Arson, a class “B” felony
- Second-Degree Arson (two counts), a class “C” felony
- First-Degree Criminal Mischief (two counts), a class “C” felony
No other suspects are believed to have been involved in any of the three Maxwell fires. The school bus and Casey’s building have both been deemed total losses.
Lennie expressed gratitude toward the investigators who have been actively working on solving the arson cases since early February and hopes the arrest will bring peace of mind to the Maxwell community. “They have been on edge, for sure,” he said. “We are very relieved to be able to bring this partially to a close by identifying a suspect that we believe was responsible for all three fires.”
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