The Bradley County Sheriff’s Office and Arson Investigator Donnie Sullivan of the Cleveland Fire Department have charged three men with the intentional burning of a vacant house at the corner of Rabbit Valley Road and Bigsby Creek Road.
An off-duty paramedic for the Bradley County Emergency Medical Service reported the fire after he saw flames pouring from the structure after midnight Thursday morning.
While he waited for the arrival of firefighting equipment, he noticed a pickup truck occupied by three men drive by. They identified themselves as former members of a fire and rescue unit and asked if they could help. They were advised to not interfere with the fire department and were watching the fire when Deputy David Harper arrived. He recognized two of the individuals from a fire he was at on Frontage Road several months ago where approximately 70 bales of hay were destroyed.
During questioning, two of the three suspects were implicated in both fires.
Gregory Aaron Taylor, 20, and Joshua Lee Terry, 19, have been charged with arson and setting fire to personal property or land. The third suspect, Thomas Dean Goins, 21, is charged with arson in connection with Wednesday night’s fire.
Sheriff Tim Gobble said, “I want to commend Deputy Harper for his role in this investigation. The information he provided about seeing two of the suspects at an earlier fire was crucial in solving open case files not only in this county but in at least one other county.”
Tennessee Code Annotated classifies arson as a class C felony and setting fire to personal property as a class E felony.
The Bomb and Arson Section of the state Fire Marshall’s Office is conducting additional investigation into fires in McMinn County, but no charges have been filed at this time.