Olympia police arrested a 32-year-old man accused of setting fires in downtown Wednesday evening.
Officers and firefighters responded at 8 p.m. to a call about a dumpster fire on the 400 block of Capitol Way South, near U.S. Bank, Police Lt. Paul Lower said. As fire crews arrived, Lower said the man removed some burning cardboard, walked away with it and set it down by a car parked on the 200 block of Fourth Avenue East.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the fires and officers caught up with the man a couple blocks away, Lower said. The man had two lighters and told officers he intended to set more fires in the area, Lower added.
No property was damaged by the fires, Lower said.
Officers booked the man into the Nisqually jail on suspicion of second-degree reckless burning, a gross misdemeanor, according to the jail log.
In a Thursday Facebook post, the Olympia Police Department said firefighters extinguished multiple burn piles. A photo attached to the post showed the aftermath of a fire on blackened pavement.
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