Suspected arsonist arrested in Pablo

A Pablo man suspected of setting a fire in a wooded area near the old Plum Creek Mill was arrested Monday.

Julian Draper, 33, is charged with arson and is currently lodged in the Lake County Jail.

According to information from Lake County Sheriff Don Bell, at about 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 24, a citizen called 911 to report a fire in the trees north of the old Plum Creek Mill off of Light Road in Pablo.

The caller also saw a suspicious person in the area and reported this to the 911 call center.

The Ronan Fire Department was paged and before it arrived, a Lake County Deputy Sheriff arrived to assess the fire and determined the fire to be too involved to suppress with his fire extinguisher.

However, the deputy did locate the suspicious male nearby and his investigation of this person, identified as Draper, led to his arrest.

Ronan Fire, Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribe Division of Fire, and workers from a nearby job site aided in the suppression of this fire that had potential to become a major incident which could have threatened homes and other buildings.

“The Sheriff’s Office would like to extend our gratitude to citizen’s in our community, such as the caller in this case, and the nearby workers, who take a vested interest in helping where they can,” Bell said in a press release.