LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Authorities said they rescued four people, including three children, from a house after a Crestwood man set it on fire.
Officers were sent to a home on Jacob Drive, in Westport, Kentucky, just after 3 a.m. after someone reported that a man had set a house on fire.
When officers arrived, they found the home ablaze. A witness on the scene said that a man had been inside the home just before the house fire and was "acting erratic." The witness also said four people, including three children were inside the home.
Police escorted everyone safely outside.
Police said Richard Brown, 49, owns the home with his estranged wife, and the children who were inside are believed to be his grandchildren.
While canvassing outside the home, police said they found four rifles behind a bush near the road, about 25 yards southwest of the home.
Police said they found another rifle with three loaded magazines 24 yards north of the first stash.
Brown was hiding in nearby vegetation and debris. Officers found him with the help of a heat signature camera.
Brown was found in a "vantage point to view all first responders, make advances to his weapons and maintain cover in an effort to elude capture," according to the arrest report.
Amid the chaos with Brown and police, four fire departments put out the blaze.
"You're thinking about it. You're kind of on guard as you're going in, but at the same time you've got a house fire with a possible rescue so we're going in trying to do our jobs," said Westport Fire Chief Jeff Pence. "You don't know what you're walking into these days. It's part of it."
Police said Brown was highly intoxicated. When they confronted him, identifying themselves as police officers, Brown refused to surrender, according to police.
Police said they had to use "necessary force" to subdue Brown, and one officer was injured. That officer was treated.
Brown was arrested and charged with first-degree arson, third-degree assault of a police or probation officer, resisting arrest, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and first-degree wanton endangerment.
He was being held in the Oldham County Detention Center.
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