A Whetstone fire that was deemed arson led to the arrest Saturday of four men who are facing multiple charges.
The men arrested and booked into the Cochise County jail were Devin Knable, 18, of Fairbank; Ernesto Huerta, 20, of Sierra Vista; Elias Ortiz, 21, and Dakota Compton, 21, both of Tucson, said Carol Capas, a Cochise County Sheriff's spokeswoman.
All four face suspicion of traffic in stolen property, theft, arson, criminal damage, and burglary charges, Capas said. They remain in jail each held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
On April 15, Cochise County Sheriff's deputies responded at 7 p.m. to a fire in the 2000 block of North Bowers Road in Whetstone, said Capas.
A Whetstone Fire Department crew said that the doors to the home were open and an expended flare was found inside the house. No one was home at the time of the fire.
Deputies found several buses, a garage and other structures fully engulfed in flames.
Firefighters put out the flames and investigators discovered that a liquid accelerant was inside the structures as well as expended flares, which presumably ignied the fire, Capas said.
Relatives of the family who lived there arrived and reported that they were caring for property, and several vehicles appeared to be missing, said Capas.
On April 16, an anonymous tip to authorities led to the arrest of three of the suspects at a Sierra Vista residence, said Capas. Investigators also located a vehicle that was reported stolen from the Whetstone property, along with other stolen items.
The fourth suspect, Compton, turned himself into authorities at the sheriff's office, Capas said.
Capas said the suspects told investigators that they had stolen vehicles from the Whetstone property and sold them in Mexico for money to purchase drugs.
