Midlands teen interested in becoming firefighter charged with arson

The bad news is a Midlands teenager who is a member of an area Explorers program started a fire and has been arrested.

The really bad news, if he was trying to put out the fire he didn’t do a good job.

Thomas Carson Euten, 17, was charged with second-degree arson, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The member of the Sumter Fire Department’s Explorers program is accused of causing a fire that severely damaged a mobile home Monday.

Euten was striking matches and throwing them on the ground, when a couch in the yard beside the mobile home caught fire and quickly spread to the residence, according to the incident report.

Damage to the mobile home was estimated at $40,000, the sheriff’s office said.

Euten was taken to the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center.

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 7:01 AM.