Canadian police investigate suspicious fires for link to LA arsonist

Canadian police investigate suspicious fires for link to LA arsonist

2012-01-07 01:16:06 GMT+7 (ICT)

LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) -- Canadian police are investigating whether a series of suspicious fires in Vancouver last year were committed by the same man arrested for a string of fires in California over the New Year's holiday.

Harry Burkhart, a 24-year-old German national, was arrested on early Monday morning and was charged on Wednesday with 37 counts of arson. He is suspected of setting more than four dozen fires in Hollywood and West Hollywood over the New Year's weekend.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Burkhart lived with his mother in the Canadian city of Vancouver until he moved to the Los Angeles area last year. Police there are now investigating whether he may have been responsible for at least 12 suspicious property fires in Vancouver, although no actual link has been found so far.

The fires allegedly set by Burkhart terrorized residents of Hollywood and the Westside from December 30 until his arrest on early Monday. There were only minor injuries, but property damage to homes and automobiles was in the millions of dollars. Most of the fires were started in automobiles in carports, causing them to spread to structures in many cases.

The suspect is also under investigation for arson and insurance fraud after a fire caused major damage at a building in the mountainous region near Marburg in central Germany in October 2011. Burkhart flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas several days after the fire.

The fires in Hollywood began just after Burkhart's mother, 53-year-old Dorothee, was detained by U.S. authorities on a German criminal warrant which charged her with fraud. Dorothee had previously escaped from a hospital in September 2007 while she was in pretrial detention. She is currently fighting an extradition to Germany.

Harry Burkhart was last week removed from a court in Los Angeles after shouting expletives during the first hearing on his mother's extradition warrant. He ranted against the United States, and prosecutors believe he set the fires over his 'rage against Americans.'

Since being arrested, Burkhart has been uncooperative, according to the Los Angeles Times. He has not spoken about the fires and, the only times he talked, it was rants against the United States.

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