Man accused of setting apartment on fire to collect insurance money waives preliminary hearing
A Clearfield man is facing arson charges for allegedly setting his apartment on fire and then filing a more than $34,000 insurance claim.
Heath Oliver Austin, 41, is charged with felony counts of arson-danger of death or bodily injury, arson-intent to destroy unoccupied building, arson-intent to collect insurance, reckless burning or exploding, causing a catastrophe, criminal mischief and false/fraud/incomplete insurance claim, and misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday during centralized court in Clearfield County, where his bail was set at $50,000, unsecured.
The charges stem from a fire April 3 at Austin’s East Pine Street apartment in Clearfield borough.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, when police arrived on the scene several neighbors told them a deaf man lived in the burning apartment and he was possibly still inside. Because the apartment door was locked, the officers had to force entry. The apartment was filled with smoke but no one was inside.
Once the fire was extinguished, the firefighters asked for assistance from a state police fire marshal to determine the cause of the fire.
After an investigation, the fire marshal reported that the fire had been intentionally set by a direct flame making contact with the clothing in a laundry basket in a bedroom. A search of the residence found that there were no clothing items in any of the dressers, bed drawers or cabinet, according to police.
Austin, the apartment’s resident, reportedly filed an insurance claim stating he lost a large amount of clothing in the fire. The value of the clothing that he reported to his insurance company was $34,259.20. The maximum he could have claimed on his policy was $36,000, police said.
On April 25, police officers and a certified deaf interpreter met with Austin to conduct a polygraph examination. During this time, Austin allegedly admitted to one officer that he was having a hard time financially and that he started the fire by lighting a shirt in the laundry basket on fire.
This story was originally published July 12, 2017 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Man accused of setting apartment on fire to collect insurance money waives preliminary hearing."