GREENFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A former Ohio Fire Administrator will spend time in jail after he started dozens of arson fires in a national forest.
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James Bartels, 52, of Rio Grande Ohio, a former Greenfield Township fire department administrator and police officer, started 26 fires in Wayne National Forest in 2022, according to a release from the Department of Justice Southern District of Ohio.
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The fires created a substantial risk of death or significant injury to the public, as well as to firefighters from federal, state, and local governments who responded to the fires.
More than 100 firefighters from several states responded and approximately 1,300 acres of federal and state land were burned.
As a result of the fires, the U.S. Forest Service incurred more than $638,000 in expenditures, according to the release.
On Oct. 29, 2022, officers with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources noticed a truck registered to Bartels near Wayne National Forest and within an hour a fire was reported in the forest near where the vehicle had been spotted, according to court docs.
Bartels resigned from working as a 911 dispatcher for Gallia County on Nov. 8, 2022. In the days that followed, at least 17 fires were lit.
Bartels was seen at two separate locations in the vicinity of multiple fires within minutes of them starting.
Investigators were also able to place him at the locations of the fires using his truck’s infotainment system data, according to the release.
Bartels was arrested in December 2022 and pleaded guilty in September 2023.
He admitted to starting the fires with a lighter to “give the boys something to do” and to distract himself from his depression.
Bartels was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay $638,000 in restitution and register through the Ohio Arson Registry.
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