Alleged ‘serial arsonist’ charged after setting fire to St. Paul’s church gas line

On security footage outside St. Paul's Presbyterian Church on New Year's Eve, a man was seen walking from the 168-year-old downtown building, looking back over his shoulder at the gas line he lit on fire.

An arsonist wants to cause maximum potential damage, what better way than by attacking a vulnerable area of the building; the gas line," said Det. Const. Shaun Fennessy, an assistant arson investigator with the Hamilton Police Service.

The man had used incendiary material" including a wick and a rag to start the fire, said Fennessy, who added: It was clear he had planned it.'"

The gas line is on the west side of the building next to a parking lot.

It was only because smoke wafted into an open church window, setting off a fire alarm in the boiler room, that firefighters were dispatched to the James Street South church at 4:10 p.m., putting it out with minimal damage.

Later that night, Hamilton police found a man downtown, wearing the same clothes as on the security video, and learned that the suspect had been charged with arsons in York Region last spring, where fires were set at two banks and a car dealership in Newmarket, 55 kilometres north of Toronto, with property damage reportedly $100,000.

He would be classified a serial arsonist, given those circumstances," Fennessy told The Spectator.

He said St. Paul's church officials did not recognize the man.

Police had transported the man to York Regional Police and, on Monday, announced the new Hamilton charges that include arson-disregard for human life, possession of incendiary material and failure to comply with probation restrictions.

The man charged is a 49-year-old of no fixed address," said a police news release.

Fennessy told The Spectator that the man does not live in Hamilton, but has been living in several municipalities.

St. Paul's, which features neo-Gothic and neoclassical architecture, is a designated National Historic Site.

Looking at the history of that church, it is part of the Hamilton community; there would have been huge impact if the fire had spread," said Fennessy.

He added that last fall, there had been an unrelated arson attack on the gas line of a building at McMaster Innovation Park on Longwood Road South, in which police made an arrest. He said that building suffered significant damage."

Jon Wells is a feature writer at The Spectator. jwells@thespec.com