Slate Belt Regional Police were called to a home on Batts Switch Road in Plainfield Township at 5:30 p.n. on April 11 for a requested welfare check, the department wrote in a release. 

There, the caller said they were concerned for Phillip D. Berberena, who had been in the area of the Appalachian Trail and had been riding his motorcycle, according to police. 

Hours later, at 9 p.m., officers were called to the scene of a brush fire on the Appalachian Trail. They found a motorcycle helmet and a cell phone, later confirmed to be Berberena's, authorities wrote. 

As four different fire departments battled the blaze, Slate Belt officers located and arrested Berberena, 48, of Pen Argyl. He is charged with risking a catastrophe, a third-degree felony, as well as misdemeanor failure to report or control a dangerous fire, police said. 

Bail was set at $40,000 and Berberena is due back in court for his preliminary hearing on April 27, court records show. 

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