New Hampshire man accused of stealing fire truck while crews battled fire at his Dalton home
A New Hampshire man faces multiple charges after officials said he stole a fire truck while his home was burning to the ground.
The Littleton Fire-Rescue Department said some of its crews responded to Faraway Road in Dalton shortly after 3 a.m. Tuesday to help members of the Dalton Fire and Rescue Department battle a house fire.
A photograph shared by Littleton Fire-Rescue shows the Dalton home was engulfed in flames.
Officials told WMTW sister station WMUR that the resident of the home, 30-year-old Nestor Roman, was not in the house at the time of the fire and said that he jumped into the driver's seat of a Whitefield Fire Department vehicle and started driving away.
Littleton Fire-Rescue said that Roman drove the stolen fire engine into other emergency vehicles and personal vehicles, and he also drove toward firefighters who were working to extinguish the house fire.
"The individual's actions created an extremely dangerous environment for firefighters already working to control the structure fire," the Littleton Fire-Rescue Department said in a Facebook post.
Officials told WMUR that Roman rammed two other Whitefield Fire Department vehicles and broke through a neighbor's fence.
The Whitefield Firefighters Association said Whitefield Fire Department Engine 3 and Rescue 1 sustained "a great deal of damage" as a result of the incident.
New Hampshire State Police Lt. Christopher Ladd said that Roman stopped at a home a couple miles down Faraway Road and was trying to get inside of that house when he was arrested by state troopers.
"He was actually attempting to make entry into the back of that residence," Ladd told WMUR.
Roman has been charged with reckless conduct with a deadly weapon, theft by unauthorized taking, burglary and resisting arrest. He is scheduled to be arraigned on those charges Wednesday afternoon.
The cause of the fire, which destroyed Roman's home, remains under investigation.