Police: intentional truck fire ignites federal forest.

– OCSO photo

Police: intentional truck fire ignites federal forest.

By Allison Scarbrough, Editor.

GREENWOOD TOWNSHIP — The Oceana County Sheriff’s Office is pursuing charges of malicious destruction of property/arson and damage to federal forest land against a 37-year-old Muskegon man who allegedly set a truck on fire Monday night, July 27, causing a 9.5-acre forest fire in the Huron-Manistee National Forest at Sischo Bayou, according to Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast.

The suspect had originally told deputies that the 2002 GMC pickup truck accidentally caught fire following a rollover crash in the area, but he later admitted that he had intentionally started the fire, Mast said. The truck, which is totally destroyed, belonged to the suspect’s girlfriend.

– OCSO photo

The forest fire was extinguished by the Hesperia Fire Department, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the US Forest Service.

During the investigation, deputies discovered that the truck was intentionally lit.

The case is being turned over the Oceana County Prosecutor’s Office for review. “Restitution may be considerable,” Mast said.

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