ignoring jj's warnings, he heads upstairs to confront the arsonist. to his horror, he realizes that the arsonist is in fact city manager zach hayden, who wanted to burn buildings in order to build a football stadium for corbin sellars (matt cooke) - killing shane's uncle in the process. after engine 55's closure was denied, he had no choice but to burn the station down himself, but didn't realize that shane was still in the building. as the two become trapped inside the burning building when zachary's incendiary device ignites a gas line and the firefighters den is on fire, the room where zach and shane are batting over fire extinguisher, the ceiling explodes and the fire from upstairs has spread throughout, zachary calls for shane who is unconscious, zach gives up getting a response from shane and then leaves shane in the room unconscious.