OLD ORCHARD BEACH – A former Old Orchard Beach fire chief is due to be sentenced for setting fire to a large marsh area.

Sixty-one-year-old Ricky Plummer is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in October to setting a fire that spread over more than 40 acres in the town in April 2016. He was the town’s fire chief at the time.

At the time, Plummer told a forest ranger that he was in the area where the fire later happened, smoking a cigarette. He said he threw the cigarette and matches into cattails. No one has been able to verify he was a smoker, and no cigarette butts were ever found at the fire’s origin.

Plummer went on administrative leave and later resigned.

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