It took more than 100 firefighters from surrounding towns and a helicopter dumping water from above to extinguish the wind-fueled inferno that ripped across 42 acres of dry marshland, nearly burning down a condo complex in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, last month. Leading the charge was the town’s fire chief, Ricky Plummer, who set up a command post and briefed reporters on the devastation.
“It was a huge fire going past, like a freight train,’’ Plummer told a local TV station as several crews protected a line of motels and homes on the far side of the marsh.
But when Maine Forest Ranger Matthew Bennett looked at security camera footage taken from a nearby seaside motel, he made a discovery that has upended Old Orchard Beach and led authorities to investigate Plummer’s history in three other states, including Massachusetts.
The video shows Plummer’s black Ford sport utility vehicle with the Fire Department logo on its side parking in the area right before the fire began, at about 2:30 p.m. on April 15. The fire chief is seen walking into the woods, and then, 25 minutes later, walking quickly back to his SUV — evidence that contradicts what he had told dispatchers that day.
Just before the fire broke out, Plummer had radioed in to say that he was going to inspect a condominium complex, eight-tenths of a mile away from where his SUV was seen parked at that time. Twenty-seven minutes later, just before he emerged from the woods on the video, he radioed in to tell them that he had finished the inspection, Bennett later recounted in an affidavit.
When Bennett and other investigators questioned Plummer about the discrepancies, he initially denied any involvement in the fire. Then he changed his story, claiming he accidentally started the blaze after he drove to the woods for some “peace,’’ smoked a cigarette, and discarded two paper matches in dry, chest-high cattails. “I know better to even be out there with a cigarette,’’ he told investigators.
But the investigators found holes in that account, as well.
The fire chief, who said he got two cigarettes from his wife that day, was unable to name anyone who could corroborate that he is a smoker, and acknowledged that he doesn’t like smoking, doesn’t like the taste, and doesn’t even inhale.
And when Plummer took Bennett to the area where he said he had been smoking, Bennett was unable to find a cigarette butt. A fiberglass butt would typically remain intact after a wildfire, Bennett reported, because the first, low-intensity flames travel away from the ignition source.
On Saturday, Plummer, a 59-year-old career fire chief who has worked in at least a half-dozen towns in four states, was arrested at his mother-in-law’s home, and charged with arson.
He made his initial appearance in Springvale District Court on Monday, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. Bail was set at $10,000. “He denies the allegation,’’ his attorney, Bernard J. Broder III, said in an interview Tuesday, declining to comment further.
Maine Fire Marshal Joseph E. Thomas said Tuesday that his office is working with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to examine Plummer’s career.
He started fighting fires in Portsmouth, N.H., and has held posts in the fire departments in Biddeford, Gray, North Yarmouth, and Standish, Maine; Cocoa, Fla., and Marlborough, Mass., where he was chief from 2010 to 2011, Thomas said.
Two cases that have caught investigators’ attention: an unsolved arson that destroyed the vacant Americana Motel in Old Orchard Beach in January 2015. And an arson fire that damaged a vacant three-story building on Old Orchard Street in December. Plummer was the first to report that fire to authorities, investigators said.
“Obviously, we’re doing a case review of any outstanding fire incidents in communities he’s been associated with,’’ Thomas said. “That’s a standard practice. He just happens to be the fire chief in this case.’’
Michael Tousignant, a town councilor in Old Orchard Beach, said that during his almost two years on the job, Plummer had “seemed to be a nice guy’’ and “had done a nice job.’’
“Everybody’s stunned,’’ Tousignant said. “It’s a shock.’’
Plummer’s arrest has also puzzled arson experts.
Robert Stadolnik, a psychologist and president of FirePsych Inc., which specializes in arson assessments and treatment, said it is less likely for a firefighter to set fires than for an accountant to commit embezzlement or a police officer to be arrested for violence.
When firefighters do set fires, he said, they are typically young volunteer firefighters who are paid for every blaze they respond to, or get a boost in self-esteem when they fight fires.
“Someone at this level is very rare,’’ Stadolnik said. “The fire service will want to root this out. It’s such a violation within the ranks.’’
Dan Costin, a 69-year-old salesman for Time Warner, was the first person to report last month’s marsh fire to authorities.
He said he was working from home when his wife noticed smoke outside. He looked out the window and “immediately saw flames’’ racing across the dry grass toward his house.
“It blew my mind how fast it got moving,’’ he said. “We were very lucky we saw it when I did. I really think five minutes later it wouldn’t have stopped where it was.’’
He and other residents of his condo complex were evacuated while fire crews battled the blaze. After he was allowed back into his home, Costin said, Plummer walked across his deck with other firefighters, and marveled at how the dry grass came right to the door.
“I heard him saying, ‘I can’t believe they have this grass this close to this house — this is terrible,’’’ Costin said.
Costin said he had been planning to talk to Plummer about building a fire break around the condo complex when he heard from a friend that the fire chief had been charged with setting the fire.
“It turns out, holy cow, it was him,’’ Costin said. Although he said he had heard of firefighters being charged with arson, “you never think about it being senior people in the department. That’s just crazy.’’
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson.
