Toy Salesman Is Facing Arson Charges in Historic Mining Town

A traveling toy salesman was charged Sunday with setting one of a string of arson fires that terrorized this historic coal mining town during the Christmas weekend, authorities said.

Jerry Lee Barker, 38, of Sparta, Tenn., was accused of setting fire to a truck, one of four suspicious blazes that occurred within minutes of each other Saturday, Police Chief David Stratton said.

They occurred a day after a fire and explosion gutted four downtown buildings and injured seven people.

Charges related to the Friday fire and the other Saturday fires--at a bank, a tavern and a fire station--may be filed against Barker today, Stratton said.

Barker was arrested after he called for an ambulance, saying he had injured his back. Police officers who accompanied the ambulance crew saw that he had burns on his hands.

He was in fair condition at Williamson Memorial Hospital, a nursing supervisor said Sunday. He will appear before a county magistrate when he is discharged, Stratton said.

Stratton said officers first encountered Barker when he walked into the police station during Friday’s fire to report an accident. He was charged then with illegally carrying a concealed weapon when it was noticed he had a gun, the chief said.

“We didn’t ask him about the fire because, frankly, we were tied up fighting it,” Stratton said.

Barker was questioned after Saturday’s fires, and authorities were growing suspicious of him by the time he called for the ambulance, Stratton said.