Firefighters arrested for lighting fires

ROME — Fifteen firefighters in Sicily are suspected of deliberately setting fires or having friends or family call in false alarms so they could be called to work and earn money, police said Monday, announcing the arrest of the alleged ringleader.

The 15 firefighters are volunteers, but when called in off-duty they receive nearly $12 an hour in compensation from the Italian government.

Ragusa, Sicily, police official Antonino Ciavola said the fire department’s command centre tipped off authorities that one squad of off-duty firefighters was being disproportionally called to fight fires.

“Compared with 40 interventions from one squad, these volunteers were doing 120, sparking grumbling among some and the desire to join them by others, so they could get more money,” Ciavola said in a statement.

One of the 15 was put under house arrest, while the others were allowed to stay free.

Police said sometimes the suspects called the national phone number for fire emergencies; other times they enlisted friends or relatives.

Other times, the suspects allegedly set fire to trash containers or land in the countryside.

But Ciavola said the suspects were so greedy, they became careless, using their own phones to report fires. Other times, he said, relatives and friends used the same phone number to call in fires, but gave operators different names.

Investigators said the alleged ringleader was particularly bold. “With the complicity of the other volunteers, while on duty, with his own car, he left the fire station to set a fire or call in a false alarm, then went back to the station and waited for dispatchers to order them to fight the blaze, Ciavola said.

Investigators contend the scheme went on from 2013 to 2015.

The Mediterranean island usually experiences very dry summers, making it easy for fires to catch hold. The Associated Press

LONDON — A British model who says she was lured to Milan and kidnapped by a man who allegedly threatened to auction her online is back in Britain and speaking to police after her “horrific ordeal,” her agent said Monday.

Phil Green of Supermodel Agency said 20-year-old Chloe Ayling was undergoing “debriefing” with government officials and the police.

Milan police said Ayling was abducted on July 11, then “drugged, handcuffed and closed inside a suitcase ... to be sold to the best offer on pornography sites.”

Green said in a statement that Ayling was kidnapped “by a group calling themselves ‘Black Death,’ while she was attending a photo shoot at a recognized studio in the city centre.”

Police said that when she showed up for the appointment, Ayling was attacked, put in a suitcase, placed in the trunk of a car and driven to a rural house near Turin in northern Italy. In the house, “the model was kept handcuffed to a wooden dresser in a bedroom.” Police say Ayling was released and dropped off at the British consulate in Milan on July 17. The next day, police arrested Lukasz Pawel Herba, a Polish citizen living in Britain, in connection with the alleged abduction. Police said they think Herba, 30, advertised the “sale” of the woman online, while at the same time demanding $300,000 ransom from her agent. Authorities said as far as they know, no ransom was paid.

Britain’s National Crime Agency said British police are working with Italian authorities and searched a house in central England linked to Herba. After flying back to the U.K. on Sunday, Ayling told reporters on the doorstep of her home in south London: “I’ve been through a terrifying experience. I’ve feared for my life, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour.” The Associated Press