According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, Bartels started 26 fires in the national forest in 2022 while he was an administrator at the Greenfield Twp. Volunteer Fire Department.
He has previously served as a police officer at various law enforcement agencies in Ohio and served as a 911 dispatcher in Gallia County until he resigned Nov. 8, 2022, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a release.
Bartels came under suspicion after an Ohio Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officer saw a truck registered to Bartels near Wayne National Forest on Oct. 29, 2022, and within an hour a fire was reported near that location.
After Bartels resigned as a dispatcher, at least 17 fires were lit in the forest, the release said.
The attorney’s office said he was seen at two locations in the area of multiple fires within minutes of their ignition, and the truck’s infotainment system placed him at the fires as well.
Bartels admitted to starting the fires with a lighter to “give the boys something to do” and distract himself from his depression, the release said.
In total, the fires burned about 1,300 acres of federal and state land, and more than 100 firefighters from several states responded to fight them, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
He was arrested in December 2022 and pleaded guilty in September 2023.
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