Chester Police Department called to scene for domestic; ends with house fire

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Chester Police Department was called to 818 Valley Street in Chester at approximately 2:00 a.m. on Monday, February 20. Chester Chief of Police Donal McKinney stated a call came into Sparta 911 in response to a domestic dispute.

"We (Chester Police Department) received a call from 911 regarding a domestic. The first call to come into 911 was from the suspects father. The second call placed was from the suspects wife," stated McKinney.

Officers Bobby Helmers and Kenny Stout were the first ones on the scene. Once at the scene they encountered Thomas Beil, 36.

"Beil wouldn't let the officers in the residence. He had a board with nails and was keeping the officers at bay," stated McKinney. "At that time we started to request back-up. Sparta Police Department came to the scene with their K9 unit.

"He did let his wife, Ann Chadwick, and three children out of the residence. Once they were out the wife tried to go back in and was stopped by Officer Helmers. The house then broke out in a fire. The fire started in the upstairs bedroom. We couldn't get to Beil because he had barricaded the hallway to the upstairs and the bedroom door," stated McKinney. "He finally jumped out of the upstairs bedroom window, landing on a carport then on the ground. He was tased twice and that didn't phase him, he was then shot with a bean-bag shotgun which finally took him down. He was then apprehended by officers. He was taken to Memorial Hospital and then transferred to St.?John's Burn Unit in St. Louis. McKinney stated he suffered burns to 50 percent of his body.

Chester Fire Captain Marty Bert said they were paged out to the fire at approximately 2:30 a.m.

"We were instructed by the Chester Police Department and The Randolph County Sheriff's Department to stand-by staged 2 blocks away until the suspect came out of house," said Bert. " Once we were cleared to go to the scene we had the fire under control within 30 minuters. The fire flared back up so we had to cut holes in the roof for ventilation. We cut it from the inside out to knock the hot spots down."

According to Bert 2 dogs were in the house at the time of the fire, one died and one came running out of the first floor.

Bert also noted that the Chester Fire Department trained with the Ellis Grove Fire Department on Saturday on a controlled house burn. He said that training came into use with this particular fire.

Assisting the Chester Police and Randolph County Sheriff's Department were Sparta and Steeleville Police Departments.

Ellis Grove & Steeleville Fire Departments provided mutual aid.

"The fire is currently under investigation by the State Fire Marshall's Office," said Chester Fire Chief Mike Lochhead.