LONE JACK, Mo. — A Lone Jack man is now charged in a series of wildfires in California.
Law enforcement said Freddie Graham set the fires by throwing flaming pieces of paper from his rental car. Police arrested him as he returned that car.
"It was very strange - I mean why would you go out to California and start fires I have no idea," Debbie Timmer, an employee at the Lone Jack Cafe, said.
While no one was hurt, the more than a dozen wildfires near San Francisco burned more than 120 acres.
The 68-year-old man was set to appear at the Jackson County Veteran's Court on Wednesday over a hay trailer fire that occurred last summer.
"I looked up and noticed some smoke and I looked again and actually saw some flames," Timmer said of the 2018 fire.
Lone Jack Fire Protection District Chief David Kelsey recalls it took two days to extinguish and cleanup.
"Hay bale fires are extremely difficult to put out," Kelsey said. "Once they start burning, they start going internal and it's hard to get water to penetrate into those. About the only way to put them out is to tear them apart and spread them."
"I thought that maybe it was hot out maybe it had combusted we had no one idea that it was someone who had intentionally done it," Timmer said.
Charging documents filed in Jackson County Missouri show Graham admitted to setting the hay on fire because the trucking company hauling it didn't hire him.
While the motive in the California case is unclear, Graham's family nor attorney in Missouri wanted to comment publicly on the latest charges.
Graham is being held at a Santa Clara County California jail on a $2 million bond.
He's scheduled to enter a plea at a court appearance on Monday
If convicted on all 15 arson-related counts, Graham could face up to 22 years in prison.
