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Norfolk Firefighter Charged With Arsons on Eastern Shore

Posted on: Thursday, 26 January 2006, 09:00 CST

By Matthew Roy, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Jan. 26--NORFOLK -- A city firefighter has been charged with setting four fires within two hours in Salisbury, Md. , on Tuesday night, and authorities are investigating whether he set other fires on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia.

At 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, Salisbury police stopped David Clifton Parks, 30 , of Onancock, in a Lincoln Continental that he had been driving erratically, according to W. Faron Taylor, a deputy state fire marshal in Maryland.

Police saw him stuff something under his front seat, Taylor said, and they found matches there . They also found a one-gallon container of gasoline in the back seat.

A witness identified Parks as having been at one of the fires with a large fuel container, which was recovered elsewhere, Taylor said.

Parks, who was once recognized for heroism in the rescue of a boy from a burning Eastern Shore home, was jailed on arson and attempted murder charges stemming from the blazes. Nobody was injured in Tuesday's fires .

Taylor said fire investigators will consider whether Parks has been involved in other pending arson cases in the region -- something they typically do when somebody is charged with multiple arsons.

The first fire, reported at

9:48 p.m., involved a car in the parking lot of the Old Salisbury Mall. Next was a

10:05 p.m. fire at two businesses, the Country House and the Sweet Retreat Cafe & Tea Room . The next was at Feldman's Market Street Antiques, at 10:41 p.m., and the last was at a duplex, at 11:32 p.m. Two occupants fought that last fire with a garden hose before firefighters arrived. Parks faces two counts of attempted murder related to that fire.

Deputy fire marshals charged Parks with several counts of arson and two counts of attempted murder. Salisbury police charged him with driving under the influence of alcohol and traffic offenses.

The fires caused an estimated $248,000 in damage.

Investigators deemed that each blaze was set from the outside with flammable liquid.

The Virginia General Assembly honored Parks for helping rescue a 5-year-old boy from a burning building in Accomac in December 2000, according to legislative records.

A volunteer firefighter on the Eastern Shore, Parks was hired in Norfolk in February 2004, said Capt. Garry Windley of Norfolk Fire-Rescue. He worked in Station 10 on Virginia Beach Boulevard.

In December, Parks was placed on administrative duty after being charged with driving under the influence in Accomack County, Windley said. As of Wednesday, he was suspended without pay pending the outcome of the charges in Maryland.

He was being held in lieu of $800,000 bond Wednesday in the Wicomico County Detention Center in Salisbury.

Virginia State Police are investigating several fires on the Eastern Shore, said Sgt. D.S. Carr. One of them destroyed the Bloxom Volunteer Fire Company's station last week while volunteers were busy battling a house fire several miles away.

Carr said Wednesday that investigators had not ruled out an accidental cause in that blaze. He could not immediately provide details of the other fires under investigation.

Reach Matthew Roy at (757) 446-2540 or matthew.roy@pilotonline.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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