MAN — A months-long investigation by the State Fire Marshal into several house fires in the Buffalo Creek area resulted in the arrest of four firefighters and two juveniles.

Those arrested were charged in Logan Magistrate Court on Oct. 7.

Several vacant homes were torched over a short period of time this summer and the fires also claimed the Wesley House Senior Citizen Center and an occupied home that burned as a result of a fire at a vacant dwelling sitting nearby.

Crystal Gail Compton, 31 of Amherstdale, and a firefighter with the Buffalo Creek Volunteer Fire Department, was charged with first degree Arson. According to the criminal complaint, on April 19, she allegedly was involved in a fire at a vacant dwelling on Robinette Hill Road.

"The defendant admitted that she paid Joe Browning prescription medications to set fire at the vacant dwelling," her criminal complaint states. The medications were three Loratab pills.

Compton responded to the scene with the fire department, the complaint also states. The fire caused extreme damage to the structure and a neighboring dwelling.

Joseph Browning, 46, of Amherstdale, and also a member of the BCVFD, was charged with first degree arson. According to his criminal complaint, he told Fire Marshal Jason Baltic that Compton left the pills in an outside grill on the front porch of her residence as payment.

Baltic reportedly told the fire marshal that he went through a window of the dwelling and set fire to a mattress inside the vacant home.

Steve Ray Waldon, 25, of Amherstdale, also a firefighter with the BCVFD was charged with first degree arson.

According to his criminal complaint, Waldon admitted to setting fire to a vacant mobile home on Buffalo Creek.

"He stated that he took gasoline from a gasoline container from a fire engine at the fire station and placed it in a small plastic bottle,” the criminal complaint said. “He stated that he walked from the fire station to the mobile home which sets over the hill. He stated that Orlando Rogers was a lookout for him while he set the fire. He placed the gasoline in the mobile home where the hot water tank had been on the side of the mobile home. He then ignited the fire and went back to the fire station and waited to be called out on the fire."

Orlando T. Rogers, 24, of Kistler, also a firefighter with the BCVFD, was charged with first degree arson. According to his criminal complaint, Rogers admitted to aiding Steve Waldon in setting fire to a vacant mobile home on Buffalo Creek.

The complaint said Rogers acted as a lookout for Waldon while he set the fire.

"He said that he and Mr. Waldon returned to the fire station a short time later and they waited to be called out for the fire," the complaint states. "He stated that he was watching for any headlights or people in the area while Mr. Waldon started the fire."

The defendants were arraigned in magistrate court by Magistrate Dwight Williamson.

Waldon was booked at the Southwestern Regional Jail at Holden at 4:55 p.m. for being a fugitive from justice. He reportedly has outstanding charges filed against him in Alabama.