Denmark police arrest alleged arsonist after multiple fires lit, including one that damaged local church

A man that allegedly went on an arson spree in Denmark on Saturday night, lighting five fires and damaging a local church has been charged. Police and firefighters in the Great Southern town of Denmark were left busy on February 1 after a spate of fires were deliberately lit within three hours. Denmark police arrested and charged a 49-year-old South West man believed to be responsible for the alleged fires. Mathew George Bradford was charged with three counts of criminal damage by fire, two counts of wilfully lit fire likely to injure or damage and stealing. Denmark police were alerted to two fires at a South Coast Highway property, the first reported at about 8.30pm. Police say that neighbours saw a man enter the property and light a fire before stealing a small pile of books from the residence and then return about two hours later to ignite the backyard of the same property. Police attended the property at about 10.55pm but were then alerted to a fire nearby at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Mitchell Street, where a fire had been lit inside a waste bin and had caught the church’s front door alight. The blaze damaged the exterior of the building but firefighters extinguished the fire before there was any further damage inside. Police were then called back to the same property on South Coast Highway and found a fire lit in bushland on a neighbouring property, with the accused offender still at the scene. There was no structural damage sustained to the two homes on South Coast Highway. Police say Mr Bradford was taken into custody at about 11.22pm. Mr Bradford was charged and appeared in Northbridge Magistrates Court on Sunday, where no bail was considered. He will next appear in Albany Magistrates Court on February 6 for a bail application.