MASON COUNTY, Wash. — A 37-year-old man is in the Mason County Jail tonight booked on charges of arson and unlawful possession of a firearm. He’s suspected of setting two overnight fires and risking the lives of dozens of people who at the time were fast asleep.
Nearly two dozen people were asleep early morning Friday when someone poured gasoline on the front porch of the Gethsemane Ministries a rehab facility and left the building to burn.
“The front of the building was fully engulfed before the fire department got here,” said lead pastor Brian Hellenthal.
Hellenthal is the lead pastor – he says it’s a miracle no one was hurt.
“The people that are in our ministry are just exceptional and we’ve had a really exceptional outpouring of support and people coming to our aid in this time,” he said.
The church set up an online fundraiser as they work to cover expenses.
Arson investigators with the Fire Marshall’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives quickly narrowed in on one person, a former resident of the ministry, 37-year-old Alexander Hoyle. Hoyle was once a tenant at a shelter in Shelton that burned down just two days prior to the fire at Gethsemane Ministries, on Feb. 15.
Investigators with the Mason County Sheriff’s Office tracked the suspect to a motel in Shelton. He was found to be “armed with a flare gun loaded with 12-gauge buckshot and threatened to shoot law enforcement.” The suspect eventually turned himself in.
Court documents reveal he admitted to detectives that he set both of fires because he was angry with the staff believing they were “taunting him and hiding his ex-girlfriend.”
For those who survived the fire, their focus is on healing.
“I’m just excited of the prospects of what God can do even of the midst of a catastrophe,” Hellenthal said.
A ministry whose mission is recovery says they plan to rebuild.
The court found probable cause for the charges of which Hoyle is accused, and bail was set at $25,000, according to Mason County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Dorcy.
Hoyle is expected to have an arraignment hearing March 6.