An Elizabethtown man is accused of starting a fire in the summer that caused damage estimated at $40,000 to a Dauphin County casino and led to the evacuation of about 2,000 people.
Jean Gerald Boucard, 44, recklessly lit a bag of potato chips with a wand lighter and threw the bag into a large box where hundreds of bags of chips were stored, state police from the Bureau of Gaming Enforcement said.
The resulting fire struck at 4:50 p.m. Aug. 12 in the catering area on the fourth floor of Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, police said.
The entire Grantville casino — with about 2,000 patrons and employees — was evacuated for three hours, state police Maj. Tim Allue of the Bureau of Gaming Enforcement said Wednesday.
No one was seriously injured, but several patrons and employees were treated for smoke inhalation, he said.
Numerous fire departments responded and extinguished the fire, police said.
Damage to the casino was estimated at $40,000.
The Bureau of Gaming Enforcement and a Troop H fire marshal conducted a joint investigation that recently concluded, Allue said.
Boucard, a casino employee at the time of the fire, was charged with causing or risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief.
He was arraigned Tuesday by District Judge Lowell A. Witmer and released on $10,000 unsecured bail, Allue said.
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