Police and arson investigators in San Francisco have arrested a man believed to be responsible for a series of fires in the city following a months-long investigation.
San Francisco police said the department’s Arson Task Force began the investigation in November into a series of fires in the Northern Police District, which stretches from the Hayes Valley to the Marina District. On Monday, plainclothes officers and members of the task force began looking for a suspect they identified as 54-year-old San Francisco resident Mark Major.
On Wednesday, officers trailed the suspect to Alamo Square Park and saw him start a fire against a restroom building structure before fleeing, police said. As firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire, a plainclothes officer followed the suspect further into the park and saw him trying to start a second fire, police said.