Prosecutor: Illinois Firefighter Started Fires for Money

A prosecutor says a Champaign, Ill., firefighter told police she set fire to her vehicle to collect an insurance payment because of financial problems.

Champaign County Assistant State’s Attorney Steve Ziegler said in court Aug. 14 that Monica Hall also told police she set fire to another vehicle to make it look as if someone else started the fires.

Hall was arrested Aug. 13 after the fires at the main fire station in Champaign.

She said she will hire her own attorney and has been ordered back to court Aug. 28.

She is being held on $10,000 bond. No phone number for Hall, who lives in Mahomet, could be located.

Ziegler says Hall has been preliminarily charged with two counts of arson and one count of obstruction of justice.

Information from: The News-Gazette, www.news-gazette.com