Boy, 16, held on charges of setting Howland fires

The teen is being detained at the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center.

STAFF REPORT

HOWLAND — The township police department has arrested the 16-year-old boy it earlier questioned regarding fires intentionally set at John F. Kennedy High School and nearby homes on Sept. 24.

Authorities have declined to identify the boy because he is a juvenile.

Ken Nussle, Warren fire chief, said Howland police charged the boy with setting the two Howland fires from that night and placed him in the Trumbull County Juvenile Justice Center in Warren.

Howland Detective Nick Roberts said investigators have confiscated a computer from the boy because of an instant-message exchange they obtained. They believe the messages, which mention the fires, were exchanged between the suspect and another teenager the night of the fire.

Roberts said the boy is not a JFK student. Nussle said the boy lives near the school.

Investigators from the Howland police and fire departments, Warren Fire Department and Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office investigated the fires Sept. 24 that hit homes on Orchard and Fairview avenues in Howland and nearby Draper Street and JFK in Warren.

Officers spoke to the suspect the night of the fire but released him. Investigators learned of him by talking to people in the neighborhood.

The fire at 2898 Orchard destroyed the vacant house, but the other house fires and two fires at JFK did less damage, and no one was injured.

Nussle said authorities still don’t know whether the teen is also responsible for any of the five earlier fires at JFK, which is on Central Parkway Southeast.

The fires started on Aug. 1, 2007, and included the destruction of a wooden storage shed for athletic equipment on July 1, 2008, and the burning of the contents of a metal replacement shed Sept. 13, 2008.

The first storage shed fire caused thousands of dollars worth of loss.