NANCY DRURY DUNCAN

DELMARVANOW CORRESPONDENT

A plea agreement was reached between the commonwealth of Virginia and a 21-year-old Onley firefighter accused of arson in February 2016.

Brandon Travis Haynes agreed to plead guilty to arson of personal property, a felony.

He will be allowed to remain on bond until his sentencing. No agreement on the sentence is included in the deal, said Accomack County Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan.

Haynes will remain free on bond until his sentencing. A pre-sentence report was ordered.

"There was a vehicle fire reported at the intersection of Locustville Road and Stonehouse Road," Morgan said of the Feb. 2, 2016 incident. "Antonio Logan’s 1993 Freightliner truck was on fire. Logan is a house mover who used the vehicle in his business.”

When Haynes reported the fire to 911, his voice was immediately recognized by the dispatcher on duty.

“Brandon, is that you?” he asked.

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When questioned by arson investigator Special Agent Glen Neal, Haynes at first denied making the call. He said he had no knowledge of the origin and cause of the fire.

After Neal told him he knew Haynes was the person who called 911 to report the fire, Morgan said, Haynes admitted he made the call but still denied knowing who set the truck on fire.

About half an hour into the interview, Haynes finally admitted setting the fire. “The accused said he did this because he was bored at the station,” Neal wrote.

Haynes was unemployed and lived at the firehouse at the time of his arrest. Onley Fire Chief Chris Davis said at the time “there were an unusually high amount of fire-related incidents during the winter of 2015-2016” to which the fire company responded.

One was a vacant 19th-century house in the village of Locustville in December 2015 that was severely damaged by fire.

“Once a pattern was noticed that Onley Fire Department was responding to more suspicious fires than normal, the Virginia State Police was notified,” Davis wrote in a statement emailed to the media.

"We are deeply saddened that our early conclusions were correct and that Brandon Haynes, a member of our department, has been arrested, summing up the case. He was a member of the Onley Fire Department,” said Morgan. “There were not as many calls as he would have wanted, so he set the fire.”

Read more from DelmarvaNow.com:

Man to serve 20 years in two Wicomico arsons

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