OCR Text |
Show F i i Arson suspect arrested for Main Street fires i White has also been linked to two earlier fires in the one-block area between 100 and 200 North Main and was charged with two misdemeanor misde-meanor counts of criminal mischief. One of the fires occurred in early August behind the Bountiful Glass Company and engulfed a small wooden storage area on the back of the building. The second misdemeanor charge against White is in connection with a grass fire in a vacant field on the same block. No structures were involved in the grass fire, and officials reported no injuries in any of the fires. Winter said the investigation is still underway, and one of the misdemeanor charges against White could be upgraded to a third felony count of aggravated arson. BOUNTIFUL-Bountiful police arrested 1 8-year-old James P. White of 195 North Main Street in Bountiful Friday on two counts of aggravated arson and two counts of criminal mischief in connection with a string of fires on Main Street. Police and fire department personnel per-sonnel from the Bountiful Fire Department and the South Davis Fire District had been watching White for three days after gathering background information on tenants of the Moore Apartment building where the last in a string of four fires occurred. The information led officials to suspect that White, one of the tenants, could have been involved in-volved with the fires. According to police Set. David J. Winter, officials arrested White after he was observed allegedly attempting at-tempting to set fire to the apartment complex. White was charged with aggravated arson, a felony, and booked into the Davis County Jail, where he is being held on $10,000 bail. "It was a long shot chance that we'd catch him in the act," Winter said. "Sometimes they pay off." White was also charged with a second count of aggravated arson dealing with a fire at the same apartment complex on Aug. 20 that totally destroyed a carport, four vehicles, two utility trailers, a storage shed and several other pieces of property. In addition, the blaze damaged one of the apartments in the complex, com-plex, and later flared up again in the same apartment. A neighboring business, Heartstrings Handicraft, also suffered extensive damage to the roof when flames jumped to the structure from the carport. The total property loss for the apartment fires has been estimated at $110,000. |