US firebug sought Facebook views: police

A wannabe weatherman has been jailed for arson in the United States after admitting he started a wildfire to draw attention to his selfie videos on Facebook, his town's police chief says.

"It's really too bad because he's not a bad kid - he's just misguided," said James Stephens, the police chief in Jenkins, Kentucky, where Johnny Mullins, 21, was arrested this week on a second-degree arson charge.

"He likes to do Facebook videos and have people follow him on his 'weather forecast,' so that's pretty much why he did what he did," the chief said. "He enjoyed the attention he got from the Facebook stuff."

"He didn't realise how much danger he was putting other people in," Stephens added.