SEQUATCHIE COUNTY, Tenn. — A man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama faces charges after authorities say he threw a lit cigarette butt into some leaves to watch them burn .. and then left the scene.  Sheriff Ronnie Hitchcock says on Monday just after 9 a.m., officers with the Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Office were sent to Standifer Grant Road on a wildfire call.

911 callers told dispatchers they had seen a small truck leave the area.  Officers and detectives searched the area for a vehicle matching the description, but turned up short.  But later in the day, around 5 p.m., the State of Tennessee Agriculture Crime Unit called detectives and said they’d located the vehicle and the person driving it at a home in Hamilton County.  Investigators then arrested Matthew Ryan Wallace of Tuscaloosa, Alabama to the Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Hitchcock says under questioning, Wallace admitted that he was on Standifer Grant Road at the time of the fire, and that he stopped his vehicle there and got out. Hitchcock says Wallace admitted he threw his cigarette in some leaves and watched it catch fire. He says he stayed until the flames were the size of his boot – but then left the scene without trying to put it out, or call anyone for help.  Wallaces faces charges that include setting fire to personal property or land, and is being held on an open court bond.

Hitchcock says detectives are following leads on other fires in the area, and wants to remind everyone of the statewide burn ban that has been issued.

This is the second arrest in connection to wildfire arsons in Sequatchie County in the past week. Sheriff Hitchcock says a 21-year-old man admitted to setting fires.