Police have picked up a 43-year-old Anacortes man in connection with recent fires at two churches here, as well as another fire early Tuesday and an earlier residential fire. The man was arrested for investigation of Attempted Murder 1st degree, 2 counts of Arson 1st, and 2 counts of Burglary in the 2nd degree.
Officers and fire fighters responded to a car fire in the north basin area of Cap Sante Marina shortly after 1AM Tuesday morning. A man reported that he had offered to let the suspect sleep in the back of his pick up overnight while he slept in the cab of the truck. He told officers he awoke to the smell of smoke and saw flames coming from the bed of his truck. He saw the suspect watching the fire from a short distance away and called 911.
Officers were able to locate the suspect a short time later several blocks away.
The man is also suspected of setting two recent fires in Anacortes. The first was at the Pilgrim Congregational Church on February 28th, the second was just last week at the Salvation Army.
Investigators from the Anacortes Police Department, ATF, and the Anacortes Fire Department had been suspicious of the man since he was named as a possible suspect in a residential fire in the 900 block of 25th St. in March of 2012; they believe there is now enough evidence to tie him to all four fires. They describe the man as a “serial arsonist.”