Man faces arson

charges in fire

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Arson charges have been filed in a fire that destroyed a mobile home last January.

The fire, which burned a trailer home in New Ulm Mobile Village, located at 2525 S. Bridge St., caused an estimated $12,000 in damage. The fire was reported on the night of Jan. 5.

The trailer home's owner, James Alan Krienke, 21, now of 23791 County Road 10, rural Sleepy Eye, is accused of setting fire to the mobile home he lived in for several years.

Arson charges were filed against Krienke in Brown County District Court Thursday. If convicted, he faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in jail and a $20,000 fine. Arson is a felony under Minnesota law.

Witnesses reported seeing fire "shooting out of the roof" of the home on the night of the fire. Firefighters arrived on the scene to find Krienke's trailer fully engulfed in flames.

No one was home at the time the fire broke out. New Ulm Fire Chief David Wolf said at the scene that he was certain of where the fire started, but he didn't know why it started.

Krienke told New Ulm police he borrowed an 110-volt electric heater from a friend earlier that evening, which reportedly he plugged in shortly before he left the trailer, locking the door behind him, according to the complaint.

The New Ulm Fire Department later found that same electric heater with a dishtowel wrapped around its cord while investigating the scene of the fire. The complaint said a balled-up phone book was found along the outside wall of the dining room.

Upon further investigation, Deputy Fire Marshal Casey Stotts found part of the towel on the cord was wrapped in masking tape. The criminal complaint said samples of the trailer's carpet and flooring tested positive for gasoline residue.

Stotts concluded in his investigation report that all indications pointed to the fire being set on purpose and that the fire was started in many different places of the living room, possibly trying to make the fire look accidental by wrapping the electrical cord on the heater with the towel and pouring gasoline on it and the floor, according to the complaint.

Police later interviewed witnesses at the scene. Those witnesses saw a car leaving the area without its headlights on, the complaint states.

The car's tracks were later videotaped by the Brown County Sheriff's Department. Police found that the tracks matched the ones on the tires of a car Krienke borrowed from a friend, according to the complaint.

The complaint said the mobile home was appraised at $6,500 and Krienke took out a $4,100 loan on the property during the summer of 2000.

The other open New Ulm arson case is one that claimed a garage at 607 N. Broadway on Oct. 10. In that fire, an estimated $30,000-40,000 was lost, including two cars, when fire consumed the garage. Officials said arson is suspected in the fire because the blaze had multiple points of origin. Investigators determined the arsonist set that fire in a remote corner after entering the garage through an unlocked door.