DeKalb County makes two arrests in burn ban

FORT PAYNE, Alabama (WDEF) – The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department is arresting people for violating the Alabama Forestry burn ban.

The Forestry Commission reported on Tuesday that they had responded to 156 fires in DeKalb County alone.

69 year old Jerry Nabors of Boaz was arrested on Halloween for a fire at his home.

It started with a Volunteer fire Department members asking him to put out a fire on his property.

They say he refused, and ran them off.

Later, a Forestry employee went to the home, and eventually called the Sheriff’s Department.

When deputies arrived, they found Nabors sitting on his porch with a gun.

They told him to put the gun away, and he refused.

He was charged with disorderly conduct.

Investigators determined that 25 to 30 acres burned as a result of Nabors’ fire.

So they re-arrested him on Tuesday on charges of Willful setting a wildland fire.

The other case goes back to a barn fire a week ago on Lookout Mountain.

It burned bales of hay, a hay baler and 2 lawn mowers.

33 year old Todd Thomas Stone from Cedar Bluff was charged with arson and criminal mischief.

Sheriff Jimmy Harris says “We are still under the fire ban and the drought emergency in our County, so please take the advice of the Alabama Forestry Commission and don’t start any fires, even if they are small they can still easily spread. Thank you to all of the Volunteer Fire and Fire Department for everything that they do to help keep these fires under control.”