LISBON — A Lisbon-area man has been arrested for causing more than $7,500 in damage after starting a fire at the local Days Inn hotel early Tuesday morning.

Justin L. Randolph, 27, of Desellem Road, was charged by village police with felony vandalism and is being held at the county jail. He is expected to be arraigned Thursday in county Municipal Court.

Police Chief Mike Abraham said Randolph checked into the Days Inn at 2 p.m. Monday, and at 3:22 a.m. they were alerted that the fire alarm was going off at the hotel. He said Randolph had apparently set some plastic on fire in his room’s bathroom, setting off the sprinkler system.

Police and firefighters arrived to find Randolph locked in the bathroom of his second-floor room. “He was hallucinating, thinking the hotel staff was out to get him, which is why he barricaded himself in the bathroom,” Abraham said.

Randolph exhibited the same behavior to police and refused to let them in, but after awhile they were able to talk him into surrendering.

“He was still paranoid and thinking people were after him,” Abraham said.

Meanwhile, the water from the sprinkler system damaged four rooms on the second floor and four floors on the ground floor before the fire department was able to get it shut off. The ceiling was collapsing in places from the water, and beds, TVs and carpeting were damaged as well, not to mention the personal property of people staying in those rooms.

Vandalism is usually a misdemeanor unless the damage exceeds $7,500. “I’m pretty confident there is more than $7,500 in damage,” Abraham said.

Randolph was taken to East Liverpool City Hospital, where he was treated and released. Randolph returned to the hotel at 10 a.m. Tuesday, and police were called to remove him, which is when he was charged. “We don’t know who dropped him off at the hotel or why” instead of taking him to his mother’s home, where he lives, Abraham said. Randolph’s mother had not seen him since Sunday.

Abraham suspects Randolph was under the influence of drugs at the time and intends to obtain the results of any blood tests he underwent at the hospital, and additional charges are possible.

tgiambroni@mojonews.com