In a courtroom in Wood County, a former Hainesville volunteer firefighter, Courtney Dwaine Keel, pleaded guilty on Thursday to four counts of felony arson. Keel was subsequently sentenced to eight years of probation and ordered to pay $6,000 in fines. As part of his sentencing, he is banned from setting foot on any fire department property and prohibited from communicating with fellow firefighters.
The charges against Keel stemmed from a series of suspicious fires that occurred in close proximity to his residence, located approximately 1.5 to 2 miles away. Investigators raised suspicions when they discovered a pattern of Keel being one of the first responders to these blazes, despite the absence of concrete evidence directly tying him to the arson incidents.
Wood County District Attorney Angela Albers commented on the case, stating, "This was a circumstantial case; we didn't have hard evidence as far as somebody seeing him light the fires. We had a lot of circumstantial evidence that he lived close, that he would be in proximity to these fires before other firefighters would, so it really just was the circumstances that led us to believe he committed these offenses."
The ban on Keel from fire department property and communication with fellow firefighters is seen as a precautionary measure to prevent any potential interference with ongoing investigations and to ensure public safety.
