CUMBERLAND COUNTY — A 33-year-old Harrisburg man has been charged with arson and other offenses after police say he set a fire at the Silver Spring Township warehouse where he was employed.
According to the Carlisle Sentinel, Adrian S. Vest is also charged with risking a catastrophe and reckless endangerment in connection to the March 13 fire at the DHL Supply warehouse on the 100 block of Commerce Drive.
There were 34 employees in the building when the fire was spotted in the center of an aisle containing desk chairs and filing cabinets, police say, but Vest was the only worker in the area and the only person who could have started the fire.
Vest also wasn’t supposed to be in the aisle where the fire was set, according to police. Coworkers told police he was operating a forklift that lifts from the bottom, and the aisle where the fire began was for clamp-style forklifts only.
Vest allegedly claimed he was sent to the aisle by scanning a barcode, but his scanner log showed his last assignment was to Aisle T, which is not the aisle where the fire started. And Vets was allegedly seen traveling to Aisle HH, where the fire began, without any products on his lift.
Vest also allegedly told police he was a volunteer firefighter for the Edgemont and Mechanicsburg fire departments, but an investigation revealed he was removed from both departments in 2017, police say.
One coworker told police she was surprised to see Vest running from the building, yelling “fire,” and making no effort to put out the flames, because she believed he was a firefighter. Another coworker said Vest appeared to be excited that fire trucks were coming, while other workers seemed alarmed or surprised.
The fire caused an estimated $65,000 in product losses and cleanup costs, police say.
