Tommy McElroy was among 13 painters trapped in the fire July 29, 2003, as they drove along an interstate highway. He faces two counts of reckless homicide and one count of criminal recklessness.
If convicted of the most serious charges, McElroy, 27, faces a prison sentence of two to eight years. He was jailed Tuesday on $150,000 bond.
All the men jumped or fell out of the truck, most of them still on fire. All were seriously burned, and Otis Turner, 46, and John ``Jay'' Webster III, 30, died later from their burns.
According to a probable cause affidavit, McElroy and Turner had argued while in the back of the box truck, and McElroy kept lighting the paper Turner was reading on fire with a lighter to bother him.
Turner got up and spilled some paint thinner on McElroy to retaliate, and some of it spilled on the truck floor. McElroy bent down and flicked the lighter near the thinner, igniting the fumes and creating a fireball, the affidavit said.
``Mr. McElroy was being kind of a jerk in the back of that truck,'' Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said at a news conference attended by survivors of the fire and relatives of Webster.
McElroy has said he is not sure what started the fire, but a probable cause affidavit said he told an investigator that evening, ``It's my fault.''
Brizzi said McElroy was not charged with murder because he did not intend to kill anybody.
One of the survivors, Danny Maple, said he was sitting next to the cargo area's roll-down door when the fireball sent the other painters scrambling over him to escape.
``When I close my eyes, I can still see that light with flames coming around my head,'' said Maple, 33, whose legs are scarred from the fire.
The Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration in January fined RPT Painting $21,000 for violations related to the fire, including allowing workers to smoke near paint and thinner.
The company's attorney, Craig J. Helmreich, declined to comment on the criminal charges, but said potentially flammable supplies and workers now travel separately.
