Chief's brother accused of arson

CANTON (AP) -- Investigators tracking who set three trash can fires in an hour say surveillance footage showed the acting department chief's brother lighting paper in one of the containers.
John Kimble, 63, of Canton, was charged with three counts of arson in the fires Tuesday in the basement of a vacant home, outside an occupied duplex and on the fourth floor of a hospital building. No one was hurt.
The hospital fire was taped and investigators confronted Kimble in jail, where he was being held for an unrelated charge of failing to appear at a court hearing. Kimble confessed to setting the fires, investigator Joe Carafelli said. Kimble, who remained jailed Friday, told fire investigators he was distraught over problems with his estranged wife, Carafelli said.
"I'm certainly awful sorry for any problem he caused anybody or the potential problem he could have caused people, and that's something the family will have to carry," acting fire Chief Gary Kimble said Thursday.
He is leading the department while Chief James Scott recovers from an April heart attack. In one fire, a neighbor doused burning trash with a hose. The hospital's sprinkler system went off, but no one had to evacuate because the new building was mostly empty.