Green Fire Mystery Partly Solved

In the wake of a rash of trashcan fires on the Green, cops have arrested an elderly man who confessed to some of the mayhem.

Since late April, there have been about 30 trashcan fires across the New Haven Green, said police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman. During those two months, detectives and investigators have been trying to hunt down the serial arsonist, before they finally caught him starting a fire on film, he said.

On Monday, April 23, the Independent came across four firefighters putting out a mini-blaze in a trashcan near the corner of College and Chapel Streets, the second one that night.

Around 9:50 p.m., the firefighters halted traffic on Temple Street, backed up and drove Engine 4 across a pedestrian pathway onto the northwest corner of the Green.

Flames burst out the bottom of the trash can, licking its sides through the metal grating. Smoke plumed up from the top, as firefighter Bob Wright doused it with a tank of water.

What was causing the fires? Had there been more activity on the Green as the city thawed out from a long winter? Had cigarette butts ignited the fire accidentally or had someone lit it intentionally?

The firefighters said they didn’t know. By the time they’d quelled the flames, the rubbish bin was a smoldering black mess; its contents, inscrutable.

Over the next two months, all across the Green, rubbish bins continued to be engulfed in flames. Investigators never found any accelerants, like gasoline, used in the blazes. Usually, the fires were started after nightfall, although a couple happened in early morning.

Investigators finally caught a break last month.

On Wednesday, May 30, Detective Michael Torre and Fire Investigations Supervisor Ray Saracco of the joint police-FD arson squad were following up on a trashcan fire from the night before, which firefighters had extinguished around midnight.

At the scene, Saracco noticed surveillance cameras on the New Haven Public Library that were pointed toward Temple Street, where the blaze had been.

Inside the library, a security guard scanned the surveillance footage for Saracco and Torre and was able to secure clear images of the man suspected of setting the fire.

It turned out that the guard actually knew who he was. The man had tried to trespass at the library several times in the past, he told the police.

Unfortunately, due to the camera’s pre-programmed movement, the arson itself wasn’t captured that time.

The next week, on Tuesday, June 5, there was another such fire at the same location. Firefighters on Engine Four responded, doused the flames and photographed the scene.

Saracco got the call and headed back to the library the next day. This time, when the security guard pulled the tape, the surveillance cameras captured the arson and arsonist.

“Just the Green is 16 acres, and there are numerous garbage cans down there. It’s a hard investigation,” said police Sgt. Rob Clark, who oversees the Fire Investigation Unit. ​“That’s why video plays such an important part.” He added that the investigation got an extra break from the security guard’s past run-ins with the suspect, showing the importance of the department’s ​“work with the community.”

After police obtained a warrant, the 72-year-old man was arrested two days later on June 7. In an interview, he confessed to setting several of the fires on the Green.

The man’s been charged with reckless burning, reckless endangerment in the first degree and criminal mischief in the first degree. The court has released him on his promise to appear on a later date.

Hartman said that City Hall staff from the Departments of Public Works and Parks and Recreation, plus the ​“ever-helpful” Downtown Ambassadors helped track down the suspected fire-starter.