Firefighter Charged With Setting Fires at PGCPS High School and Home

Tyree Torney, 19, of Hyattsville, Maryland, is charged with arson and attempted murder. (Courtesy Prince George’s Co. Fire/EMS)

A volunteer firefighter in Prince George’s County and a former Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) student has been arrested on arson charges in connection with three fires, one of them at a PGCPS high school this week, and one at an occupied house, the county fire department said.

The three separate fires affected an allay of individuals including one sparked at a townhome where four adults and a baby were asleep.

Tyree Torney, 19, has been arrested for starting a fire at Suitland High School on Monday while teachers and staff were inside the school, the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department said in release Friday night.

During the investigation, Torney admitted to causing two other fires in 2017, according to the department.

On June 10, 2017, he sparked a fire at a townhome in Upper Marlboro where his ex-girlfriend, three other adults and an infant were sleeping, fire officials say. The fire quickly spread up the outside of the home and into the attic.

Torney admitted to setting a bridge on fire on Stretford Way in Hyattsville in May 2017, the department said.

Torney was a probationary member of the Glen Dale Volunteer Fire Association. Following his arrest, Torney was “removed from all affiliations and operations” with the department, according to the release.

He faces a litany of charges including five counts of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree malicious burning, five counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of malicious destruction of property over $1,000 and multiple arson charges.