CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man has been arrested for causing multiple fires in the Charlotte area.
Raymond Cureton, 55, is accused of starting 10 fires, the Charlotte Fire Department said on Wednesday.
Investigators linked Cureton to the Sept. 21 fire on Anderson Street which caused an estimated $100 thousand in damages. A firefighter suffered a minor injury in the fire.
WCNC Charlotte's Jesse Pierre flipped through eight incident reports provided by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Some cases linked to Cureton date back from March 2006 all the way to September 2023. The cases include trash can fires to home fires.
"Arson is one of those things that is certainly frightening... Rightfully so," CMPD Lieutenant Kevin Pietrus said.
CMPD works closely with Charlotte Fire to track down arsonists and investigators comb through a lot of evidence.
“Everything from how a fire starts, to accelerant used to how long it lasted,” Pietrus said. “There is physical evidence that is left behind generally when a fire is started, there are witnesses that we talk to and sometimes camera surveillance footage... so there are a number of investigative resources.”
“We are going back and looking at the possibilities to see if these were escalating. Were there periods of inactivity, was this a consistent thing,” Pietrus said. “That is part of our work... going back so we can get a better picture.”
Overall, CMPD said arsons are down from the year before.
Cureton is being held under $170k bond. His next court date is Oct. 24. Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact the Charlotte Fire Department at (704) 334-1600.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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