A Fayette County veteran was arrested yesterday after state police said he tried to burn down a mobile home, threatened a woman who lived there and assaulted a firefighter.

State police said Salvatore "Sam" Ross Jr., 24, of Dunbar Township, was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault and arson following his arrest at the home on Brick Road.

Mr. Ross, who lives on nearby Hardy Hill Road, is a former Army paratrooper who lost a leg and much of his sight and hearing while defusing a bomb in Iraq in 2003.

Police said Mr. Ross telephoned Monica Kuhns, 23, and threatened to burn down the home, then came to the home and pounded on the door. When Ms. Kuhns let him in, he began to light items on fire, threatened her again and set the home on fire, police said. Ms. Kuhns sent her 3-year-old son and a woman, Barbara Jane Hall, 24, of Dunbar, to a neighbor's house while she unsuccessfully tried to put out the fire, police said. Their relationship to Mr. Ross was unclear yesterday.

When Dunbar firefighters arrived, police said Mr. Ross charged at them and cut the face of Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Bierer, 42.

Mr. Ross has had several run-ins with police and others and has pleaded guilty to harassment, reckless endangerment and other offenses. In 2005, he was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation after he threatened suicide and disappeared until searchers found him along the Youghiogheny River bike trail.