Neighbor Pours Gas, Sets Fire To Family's Home: Police

DES PLAINES, IL — A Des Plaines man is accused of setting fire to the home of a one of his neighbors as they slept Thursday night. Police said a man poured gasoline near the gas meter and on the lawn of a home in the 1000 block of Rose Avenue near the gas meter while all the residents were home and set it ablaze. Jason G. John, 36, faces a charge of aggravated arson in connection with the fire. He was already facing charges for illegal gun possession, according to court records.

Neighbors who requested anonymity for the privacy of their children told Patch that a line of gasoline had been poured from on top of the gas meter of the family's home all the way back into the street, creating a fierce blaze that lit up their front rooms with a bright orange glow. Days after the incident, neighbors said they could still smell gasoline.

One of the residents of the burning home and a neighbor sprung into action to extinguish the fire, Patch was told. John lives a few houses down the block from the house he is accused of setting ablaze.

Des Plaines firefighters arrived on the scene at about 10:30 p.m., according to police. There were no injuries. Police said John appeared to be intoxicated on the night of the fire. Investigators got a search warrant for his house and found evidence of the crime inside. Police said John and his neighbor had been involved in some kind of "verbal dispute" several weeks before the incident.

Neighbors disputed this account, suggesting that the residents of the home where John is accused of setting a fire had always been nice and friendly to him. Nonetheless, John is charged setting fire to their home with three sleeping children inside.

Aggravated arson is a class X felony, carrying a sentence ranging from 6 to 30 years in prison. As of Monday, John was being held without bond in Cook County Jail, police said. He appeared in court in Rolling Meadows Tuesday.

Thursday's fire was not the first time that police have been called to John's block. Last year, the neighborhood was on lockdown as a SWAT team negotiated with John as he barricaded himself in his home with weapons and threatened suicide. Police eventually used gas grenades to enter his house and take him into custody. Police were called to a similar barricade situation at John's home in 2015, according to reports.

John was also convicted of felony aggravated drunk driving with more than twice the legally allowed blood alcohol content in connection with a 2016 incident, according to Cook County court records.

"The poor guy has got some issues," Des Plaines Police Chief Bill Kushner told the Daily Herald nearly a year ago.

_{Top photo Jason G. John (Des Plaines PD)}