WCNC: A suspected serial arsonist is in jail after fire investigators say he set at least four fires over the past two years. Charles Winchester, 30, was arrested Sunday."Right now, he's charged with four fires, but there may be some other fires that we're able to identify him as well as being responsible for," said David Lowery, chief investigator for the Charlotte Fire Department.
Lowery says so far they've connected Winchester to a fire dating back to 2007. That was a vacant mobile home on Hoskins Road. Detectives with the Arson Task Force say he set another fire at a vacant home on Hovis Road in 2008.
Just last month, police arrested him for setting two separate fires, both within the same week, at a car storage lot on Newberry Street. Fourteen cars were torched. "While nobody was hurt you see a repeated pattern here. Year after year, I mean even from 2007, he's been creating these fires, causing these fires," said Lowery. That is why investigators wanted him off the streets.
"Eventually, if things continued there's a good possibility somebody could've got hurt," said Lowery. "Any person who sets a fire in the city of Charlotte is very dangerous because they're using -- instead of using a gun, they're using an open flame. It's just as dangerous," he said.
Investigators wouldn't say how Winchester allegedly set the fires.