NAGANO (TR) – Nagano Prefectural Police have arrested a 28-year-old French male after a pair of fires broke out under suspicious circumstances in Matsumoto City, reports TV Asahi (Oct. 17).
At around 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, a citizen reported seeing smoke coming out of a four-floor reinforced concrete building belonging to Fuji Logistics. Portions of a first-floor office and warehouse were heavily damaged in the blaze.
As fire crews worked to extinguish the fire, another blaze broke out in a storage area of an adjoining factory about 20 minutes later, according to Fuji News Network (Oct. 16).
Police later arrested Kevin Francis Courtin on charges of property damage for the second fire. Courtin denies the charges. “I don’t remember,” the suspect is quoted.
A man at the scene told Fuji News Network that he saw a “person resembling a foreigner.” He said that the person was waving what looked like a flag at a pedestrian crossing before disappearing from view. “The fire at the factory then broke out,” the witness said. “Not long after, the police arrested him.”
There were no injuries in either blaze.
