‘Serial arsonist.’ Fire department says Lexington man set 12 fires over 10 months.

A Lexington man has been indicted by a Fayette County grand jury on 19 felony and two misdemeanor charges involving arson and burglary.

Lexington Fire Department investigators believe Robert Bruce Stevens set 12 fires on Goodloe and Warnock streets over a 10-month period, starting in September 2017 until his arrest in July.

The 12 fires were set at three different residential and one commercial properties, according to a release from the fire department. Two of the properties had to be demolished and the other two suffered moderate damage, the fire department said.

“A serial arsonist is defined as a fire-setter who sets three or more fires with a significant cooling off period between fires,” Lexington Fire Department Chief Kristin Chilton said. “We believe Stevens meets the classification of a serial arsonist based on the pattern of fires set.”

Video surveillance showed Stevens setting multiple fires to a privacy fence only feet away from two sleeping occupants at 255 Warnock Street, says an affidavit filed in court.

In addition, investigators identified a shoe print in the snow from the second fire that happened on Dec. 9 at 519 Goodloe Street. Investigators interviewed Stevens on the night of the fire, and he was observed wearing a shoe with a similar pattern found at the back door near the rear of the house, the affidavit says.

Stevens lives on 237 Warnock Drive and was charged in July with four counts of wanton endangerment and two counts of criminal mischief. The address of the fires on Warnock is just four houses down from Stevens’ home.

Stevens now faces nine counts of arson, two counts of criminal mischief, five counts of wanton endangerment, four counts of burglary and an attempted arson a charge.

The fire department spent hundreds of hours investigating the fires and believe Stevens acted alone, Chilton said in a release.

“We believe Lexington is safer now that he has been identified and stopped,” Chilton said.

Stevens is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 27.

This story was originally published September 18, 2018 at 11:21 AM.