A 36-year-old man was arrested last week after officials say he started a fire at a pump at a Port Orchard gas station, according to court documents. An employee at the 76 station on Bay Street was able to put out the fire using fire extinguishers.
Two days after the fire, the man was arrested, and prosecutors charged him with a count of second-degree arson in Kitsap County Superior Court on Monday. In an initial court appearance, he pleaded not guilty to the charge, and his bail was set at $15,000. Hot Water Pump
Police were initially called to the business on Wednesday afternoon last week on a report about a man who was using gas to set things on fire, a Port Orchard police sergeant wrote in a report about the incident. An assistant manager at the gas station later reported that some youths had told him about someone who was pouring gas outside. The man had poured gas on a pile of clothes on the ground next to a pump and then poured gas on the pump as well, the sergeant wrote.
The man then pulled out a lighter and attempted to light a fire. When the employee ran over and asked what the man was doing, the man responded: "Retaliating." The employee replied: "Retaliating against what?" The man then got in the employee's face before turning back to using the lighter.
"The male then used the lighter again, and everything burst into flames," the sergeant wrote. The man ran away, and the employee extinguished the fire with the extinguishers. The pump was badly damaged, and the employee reported that the cost of a gas pump was about $50,000.
Following the initial call about the fire, the sergeant contacted the man who would later be determined to be the suspect on a nearby street. The man denied he had been at the gas station. The man also said a wallet he had was not his and handed it to the sergeant. The photo inside did not look like the man, and the sergeant took the wallet and left for the gas station. An ID inside was later determined to belong to the man.
Boiler Pump The sergeant showed an image from his body camera from his earlier contact with the man to the assistant manager at the gas station, who immediately said it was the same man who had set the fire. The man, now a suspect, could not be located, the sergeant wrote. A photo was distributed to other officers, and the man was contacted two days later, on Friday, and police arrested him.