Investigators said videos of the fires helped them identify the suspect.
HOUSTON — The Houston Fire Department on Monday announced a man experiencing homelessness was arrested and confessed to setting fires in Memorial Park.
HFD said the fires date back to last October. On July 21, HFD said they were made aware of several small fires in the park. On July 22, another fire was set. The next day, HFD said about 15 arson investigators were sent to the park to investigate.
“We coordinated with the arson bureau, HFD arson bureau, started working on seeing what was happening, looking at patterns, and within a matter of one day, approximately less than one day, they arrested a suspect that they had been following,” HFD Chief Thomas Muñoz said.
Authorities said videos of some of the fires helped them identify a suspect. Investigators in the park on July 23 noticed a man who fit the description of the man in the video and spoke with him.
“He identified himself from the image he was shown, ‘Do you know who this individual is?’ and he’s like, ‘Yep, that’s me,'” HFD Chief Investigator Jan Garriga said.
HFD said since the arrest on Wednesday, July 23, no new fires had been set in the park.
“That definitely shows that this might be the person that was causing the fires,” Muñoz said.
No structures were damaged in the fires, but HFD said some vegetation was burned.
Officials said the man was being held at the Harris County Jail on a $50,000 bond.
According to HFD, an investigation remains ongoing as they believe the man is responsible for about 16 fires going back to October 24. HFD did not release any information about a possible motive.
Watch the update HFD gave at the park: