ASHLAND, Ore. — A homeless man was arrested today and faces charges of starting a wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed 11 homes outside an Oregon college town.

John Thiry, 40, was arrested at 3 a.m. under a freeway overpass and charged with 11 counts of reckless endangerment and 11 counts of reckless burning, authorities said.

Ashland police Detective Sgt. Jim Alderman said other people at a homeless camp along Interstate 5 just outside the city limits saw Thiry running from the initial fire.

The fire immediately burned an abandoned barn where homeless people sleep at night, and the embers blew across the freeway, touching off the blaze that raced through a subdivision, Alderman said.

The fire on the outskirts of Ashland, a town of about 21,000 people best known as home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ignited a string of homes one after the other, setting off explosions Tuesday afternoon.

By The Associated Press