SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — An unidentified man is accused of breaking into a vacant house on Davis Lane before setting it on fire Tuesday morning.

The man, who was booked under the name John Doe, is charged with arson, burglary and several other crimes.

He is being held in the Butler County Prison on $75,000 bail.

Police said the suspect was carrying no identification when they found him shortly after a neighbor called 911 at 8:15 a.m. to report a fire on the 100-acre farm owned by Frank and Betty Davis.

The fire badly damaged the two-story home. No one was injured but a volunteer firefighter had to be treated for chest pains while battling the blaze.

The 911 caller, who lives in a rental home on the farm, also recounted seeing an unknown tall and slender man — wearing a back pack and carrying an American flag — walking near the house shortly before the fire.

The suspect matched that description. Police stopped and questioned him outside the Wieners Gone Wild hot dog shop on Route 8, before he was handcuffed and taken to the state police barracks in Butler Township for questioning.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, gave investigators a name but police could find no record for it.

Police said they found incriminating evidence in the man’s back pack, including two cigarette lighters, a hammer, a screwdriver and a wrench.

The arrest followed an investigation by Trooper Christopher Balcik, a fire marshal, who inspected the burned rubble at the home.

The house had been vacant for “many years,” Betty Davis said. She said her husband’s parents at one time lived there. More recently, it had been used as a rental property.

The house — one of several rental homes on the Davis farm, where the couple also raises sheep — had since been converted into a woodworking shop, which was equipped with utilities.

“I lost all my tools,” the 80-year-old Frank Davis said. He estimated the value of those tools at more than $20,000.

The fire started in what appeared to be an addition to the home. That part of the structure was destroyed but the main house, said Chief Steve Bickel of the Harrisville Volunteer Fire Company, was not as badly damaged.

“It may be able to be saved,” he said.

Police believe the suspect may have used some of the tools they found in his back pack to break into a rear door. He then allegedly set the fire.

A motive for the alleged arson was not mentioned in court documents.

The suspect, during his interview, told investigators that he has no home and “bounces around from place to place scavenging for what he needs to survive,” according to a police affidavit.

He claimed at the time of the fire he was walking on his way to the hot dog shop after staying the night in the woods. His final destination, he told police, was Virginia.

While battling the blaze, a Harrisville volunteer firefighter suffered a medical issue. Doreen Taggart, the medical officer of the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company, said the man was treated for “chest pain protocol.”

The firefighter, who authorities did not identify, was later taken to Butler Memorial Hospital. His condition was not believed to be serious.

Frank Davis, meanwhile, lamented the loss of his woodworking tools.

“He makes chairs, tables cabinets, things like that,” said Marcia Dippern, a friend of the Davises, who stopped by to comfort the couple after the fire.

“I build hope chests, and give them to people,” Frank Davis quickly added.

He also expressed pride in a cabinet that he constructed in the wood shop.

“I gave that one to the Wesley Grange library,” Frank Davis said. The grange is on Old Route 8 just outside Barkeyville, Venango County.