WALNUT CREEK — Police have arrested a person suspected of setting several small fires around the city on Thursday, including four inside the downtown branch library, according to a city spokeswoman.
There were about six or seven fires altogether, though none resulted in injuries, spokeswoman Betsy Burkhart said. The suspect, whose identity has not been released, was found walking along South Broadway.
The four fires set inside the public library on North Broadway forced it to close, with no timeline to reopen. Firefighters extinguished the flames and the building has been declared safe, library spokeswoman Brook Converse said.
Firefighters first responded to a report of a dumpster fire about 5 a.m. near a park-and-ride lot at South Broadway and Newell Avenue.
Shortly after extinguishing the flames, firefighters were sent to another dumpster fire reported less than a mile away on a commercial block at Cypress and North Main streets.
The library fires were reported around noon — two were set in trash cans, another on a chair and a fourth involved a book, Burkhart said.
Police have not yet said whether the arrested suspect was involved in all of the fires, but “that is the assumption,” she said.
Library management said in an email to staff that no one was hurt and the building did not sustain any damage.
Converse said the downtown Walnut Creek library has part-time security, but she could not offer more details about how the suspect was able to set four fires inside.
“That’s our biggest library and it is definitely busy,” Converse said.
She noted the library has seen more visitors after the nearby Ygnacio Valley branch — also in Walnut Creek — was closed last year so it could be used as a COVID-19 test site. Although that library is no longer a test site, it remains closed while the parking lot is being renovated and expanded.
The old Pleasant Hill branch has also closed and a new library is being constructed elsewhere in the city, resulting in even more people visiting the downtown Walnut Creek location, Converse said.
Officials could not say how many people were in the library when the fires were set.
Source: www.mercurynews.com