Police deem 5 Camden fires arson

CAMDEN – An investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s Office has concluded that five fires in recent days were arson.

While law enforcement officials on Wednesday would not confirm that they have a suspect, they searched the home of Brian Beavis, 22, of 3 Collins St. in Camden. Beavis was in custody at the Knox County Jail in Rockland on Wednesday afternoon after being arrested Monday on a charge not related to the fires.

Before that arrest, Beavis was out on bail after being arrested in Rockland last month on an arson charge. Police allege that he started a fire at the Thorndike Apartments, where he had been staying.

The first of the suspicious fires destroyed a garage and a car parked outside the building at 1 Collins St. about 7 p.m. May 1. The second fire was reported at 2 a.m. May 2 at 48 Evergreen Lane. The exterior of a house burned, but the structure was not seriously damaged.

Three grass and woods fires off Route 52 on Sunday night and Monday afternoon are also believed to be the work of the same person, Joel Davis of the State Fire Marshal’s Office said Wednesday.

No one was hurt in any of the blazes.

Police Chief Phil Roberts said Beavis was arrested Monday night at his mother’s house on Collins Street, where he had been staying.

According to his mother, the chief said, the arrest was prompted when Beavis began throwing and smashing furniture and broke some windows in the house. The mother fled, and police were summoned to the house, where they arrested Beavis, charging him with criminal mischief and violation of conditions of release from the arson charge.

Davis said evidence at the scenes of the woods fires, which destroyed about 2 acres, indicated arson.

“We’ve ruled out accidental causes,” he said.

While firefighters responded to two of the fires off Route 52, the third one apparently extinguished itself. Firefighters discovered a burned area near the Old Carriage Road off Route 52 on Monday when they responded to a nearby blaze.

Davis would not comment on what investigators were looking for at the Collins Street home.

He said he expected to file an affidavit with the court after the search.