By RODNEY SHERMAN-Clarion News editor
A 58-year-old Rimersburg man has been charged with three arson-related offenses stemming from a September 2017 fire at the former Porter Township Elementary School – a building the defendant owns.
Nelson Keith Byers is charged with felony counts of arson that endangered another person and arson and related offenses and a summary count of arson and dangerous burning for the Sept. 5 incident along Rockville Road.
State police fire marshal Russell Stewart alleges Byers intentionally started a fire at the abandoned Porter Township school that recklessly placed volunteer firefighters from Rimersburg, Distant, Hawthorn, Limestone and other fire departments in danger of death or injury.
Court documents say Stewart arrived at the scene of the fire around 11 p.m. as firefighters were winding down their efforts. The building was heavily damaged and Stewart said the structure was a total loss.
Stewart talked to New Bethlehem fire chief Barry Fox at the scene.
Fox said the building was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived. Fox also noted the fire department had been called to the location “a few years ago” and encountered Byers at the scene.
Fox said Byers advised the firefighters to let the building burn and at one point told firefighters they were not allowed on the property. Fox said he ignored Byers and firefighters extinguished that fire.
Stewart also talked to an adjoining property owner who told police he had seen Byers around the old school throughout the day, burning brush and other items, which he commonly did when he was at the site.
The neighbor told police he was worried about burning embers drifting from the Byers property onto his own buildings and trees and starting a fire.
The male neighbor said the old school building was on fire when Byers left the scene around 7:50 p.m.
The neighbor told investigators he believed Byers was trying to burn the building down to avoid demolition and clean-up costs.
Stewart noted in court documents the building wasn’t insured.
A female neighbor said she saw the building on fire and called her brother in Brookville and asked him to come to her home. The woman said she, too, was worried about the drifting burning embers.
Both people said they were afraid of Byers and what he could do and might do so they tried to stay out of things that occurred with him.
Stewart said in court documents he eliminated other possible causes of the fire and determined the cause of the building burning was a fire set by Byers. All utility services to the building had long been shut off.
Stewart interviewed Byers on Sept. 7.
Byers allegedly admitted he often burned debris near and around the building, but denied he intentionally burned the building down.
Byers, who has owned the property since 1987 or 1988, said he believed the fire was an act of God.
Byers was arraigned by district judge Jeff Miller and released on $35,000 unsecured bail. He is scheduled for a Feb. 6 preliminary hearing.
He is represented by Clarion-based attorney Sara Jane Seidle-Patton.