Police arrested a man Wednesday after a fire the night before in a Brooklyn Park apartment building. It was the latest of three fires there.
The blaze was reported shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday in a third-floor laundry room at the Willows Apartments, an eight-building complex on 67th Avenue N., said Fire Chief Ken Prillaman.
No injuries were reported in this or the previous fires. However, 35 to 40 people were displaced because electricity and water were turned off in the Tuesday blaze. Several apartments were damaged by smoke and water.
Police arrested the 50-year-old suspect 12 hours later, near the scene. State records show that he lived at the apartment complex, but police were trying to confirm Wednesday that he still resided there at the time of the fire. The Star Tribune generally does not name suspects before they are charged.
This is at least the third fire in the building's laundry rooms in the past five months and the second in this specific laundry room, Prillaman said.
"The previous fires, in and of themselves, make this one suspicious," the chief said. "It's very rare to have a fire occur in the same location. We were suspicious immediately."
Investigators were on the scene Wednesday trying to "connect the dots" among what Prillaman said were "nuisance fires" set using papers or an article of clothing. He said evidence of arson was collected at the scene Wednesday, but declined to be more specific.
The chief described the earlier fires as much smaller, burning themselves out before fire crews could arrive.
