Four Convicted in Fire That Caused $10M in Damage to Ohio's Daniel Beard Bridge | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

Four people have been sentenced in connection with a deliberately set fire that caused $10 million in damage to the Daniel Beard Bridge last year. 

The bridge, also known as the Big Mac Bridge, is a 1,300-ft-long twin tied-arch bridge carrying eight lanes of Interstate 471 over the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Newport, Ky. 

The Nov. 1 fire was ignited at a playground under the bridge at Sawyer Point Park, which runs along the riverfront in Cincinnati. The fire destroyed the playground and melted the bridge’s steel beams, causing traffic disruptions for over three months. The repair efforts took 100 days to complete, according to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office. 

Terry Stiles, 39, of Arlington Heights, Ohio pleaded guilty to aggravated arson as part of a plea agreement. He was sentenced to nine years in federal prison. Zachary Stumpf, 23, of Owensville, Ohio, was sentenced to three years of probation for obstruction of justice, Kaitlen Hall, 25, and James Hamilton, 26, both of Arlington Heights, pleaded guilty to obstruction of official business, a misdemeanor.  

Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said in a June 27 press conference that investigators used camera footage, interviews, license plate readers and old-fashioned gumshoe detective columbus oh dump truck work to identify Stiles, Stumph and Hall who were driving around in green van with temporary license plates, along with Hall’s three children, when the fire was ignited at about 3:15 a.m. 

She said that the trio were looking for scooters to steal. Stiles set the fire by gathering debris on the playground beneath the bridge, igniting it with a lighter and then brushing it with his arm to scatter the debris, Pillich said. 

“Cameras detected flames rising above 8-ft walls at the playground and it rose that high in just minutes,” she said. 

When he confessed, Pillich said Stiles admitted “to setting a lot of fires for years because he likes fires.”

As ENR reported previously, the Ohio Dept. of Transportation hired ODOT hired Hinckley, Ohio-based The Great Lakes Construction Co. to perform the emergency repairs. Work included replacement of some of the bridge's steel beams, as well as an area of the bridge deck and an overhead sign truss. Drones and dog-style robots equipped with Lidar scanners were used to assess damage. 

Matt Bruning, a spokesperson for the Ohio Dept. of Transportation, said it required preparing 200 pages of engineering documents to repair the bridge. The new steel beams were provided by Stupp Bridge of Bowling Green, Ky. 

"It was all hands on deck [for the repairs]," Bruning said. "This is a major artery." 

In an earlier press conference, Cincinnatti City Manager Sheryl Long noted that fire caused flames that reached heights of 40 ft, burning at extremely high temperatures and completely destroying the area beneath the bridge.

Pillich attributed the quick rise of the fire to the materials used in the playground including composite decking and recycled tires, both of which contain petroleum. She added, however, that “it was only because of a human starting the fire that the bridge was damaged.”

Bruning said the Cincinnati plans to rebuild the park, but in another location. 

Hamilton was charged after the fact because he helped Stiles, Stumpf and Hall evade investigators, Pillich said.

Annemarie Mannion is editor of ENR Midwest, which covers 11 states. She joined ENR in 2022 and reports from Chicago.