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Nathaniel Mickens, 56, has been charged with second-degree arson in connection with a fire April 16 in the 500 block of 13th Avenue. Witnesses and surveillance video placed Mickens at the scene, police said.
Police are also investigating a number of other fires that have occurred over the last few weeks, Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said.
“We’ve had a rash of fires in vacant buildings recently,” Ambrose said.
“These purposely set fires put our firefighters and the neighboring community at tremendous risk.”
Mickens has been arrested for arson before, including for a fire in the 1980s that killed his landlady, Emma Jean Thomas, a day after she had evicted him. That same fire displaced a total of 90 people.
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