MONCKS CORNER, S.C. — Berkeley County Sheriff’s detectives have arrested a South Carolina Forestry Commission employee on charges related to a string of suspicious wildfires in northern Berkeley County near the Francis Marion National Forest in January and February.
Brad Chance, 52, a forestry technician who worked for the agency in Berkeley and Charleston counties, was taken into custody Thursday after a joint investigation by SCFC law enforcement and the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office.
He is charged with three counts of willfully burning lands of another.
A resident of St. Stephen, Chance was hired by the Forestry Commission in February 2021.
He has been suspended without pay, pending a South Carolina Forestry Commission investigation.
Chance will appear at a bond hearing before a Berkeley County magistrate Friday, March 11
