GARY, Ind. (AP) _ Gary police say a businessman who admitted setting the trash fire that led to a nine-day blaze at a compost operation has been arrested after an open fire.
Lt. Thomas Pawlak says 49-year-old scrap metal dealer Edwin Torres Diaz of Hammond is charged with criminal recklessness and violating a restraining order.
Pawlak tells The Munster Times that officers found Diaz standing over a smoky fire Wednesday afternoon and another fire burning nearby.
Diaz has admitted said he was burning trash at his Gary operation on Nov. 3 when it sparked a fire in the compost piles at the adjacent Green Tree Enterprises just east of Gary/Chicago International Airport. The compost burned for nine days.
Diaz' home telephone line rang busy Thursday and he could not be reached for comment.
