Glendale Fire Official Indicted by Federal Jury : Arson: He is charged with eight counts of setting or attempting to set blazes in four cities. Investigators say there are links to events in his unpublished novel.

A federal grand jury has indicted Glendale’s chief arson investigator, who wrote a novel about a firefighter who sets fires, on charges that he set or tried to set blazes at eight stores during the past three years, authorities said Wednesday.

John Leonard Orr, 42, of Eagle Rock was indicted late Tuesday on five counts of arson and three counts of attempted arson, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles announced.

The stores mentioned in the indictment are in Los Angeles, Lawndale, Redondo Beach and Atascadero. Orr is believed to have visited Atascadero while driving home from a 1989 arson conference in Pacific Grove.

Glendale officials said Wednesday they will start their own investigation to determine whether Orr could have started any Glendale fire that he was later assigned to investigate, including the city’s June, 1990, College Hills brush fire, which destroyed or damaged 64 homes.

Glendale Fire Chief Richard Hinz said he has no evidence linking Orr to the College Hills blaze or to any other Glendale fire. “But given the fact that Orr did serve as the arson investigator, we will explore the possibility of concealed or adulterated evidence,” Hinz said in a prepared statement.

The charges against Orr were investigated by federal authorities because the retail stores involved dealt in interstate trade.

Since his arrest Dec. 4, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has begun reviewing recent brush and residential fires for any ties to Orr, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Cabral. Sheriff’s deputies have compiled 75 reports of unsolved arsons in the foothill areas between Sun Valley and Pasadena, he said.

Orr’s attorney, Douglas McCann, said Wednesday he is not surprised that authorities are trying to link his client to an array of unsolved arsons. “They can blame the guy for anything,” McCann said. “The question is, what evidence do they have?”

Last week, McCann persuaded two federal judges to set bail at $50,000 for Orr on the condition that he remain under electronically monitored house arrest. McCann said he expects Orr to be freed by early today.

McCann maintained that investigators are “working backward” to build a case matching the plot of Orr’s unpublished manuscript, “Points of Origin.” But federal prosecutors say Orr used his fire-setting exploits as the basis for the book.

The indictment alleges that Orr committed arson at the Cornet and Coast to Coast Hardware stores in Atascadero on March 9, 1989; at People’s Department Store in Highland Park on Dec. 10, 1990; at D&M; Yardage in Lawndale on March 27, 1991, and at a Thrifty Drug store in Redondo Beach on March 27, 1991.

It also charges him with attempted arson at Pacific Home Improvement Center in Atascadero on March 9, 1989; at Builders Emporium in North Hollywood on Dec. 14, 1990, and at Stats Floral Supply in Redondo Beach on March 27, 1991.

If convicted on all the charges, Orr could be sentenced to up to 80 years in prison and ordered to pay up to $2 million in fines, federal authorities said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Stefan Stein said attempted arson charges were filed in the cases where a deliberately set fire either burned itself out quickly or was extinguished before it caused significant damage.

Stein said no serious injuries occurred in the fires. In some of them, damage was relatively minor, but the People’s store was destroyed, with the loss estimated at $1.5 million.

Atascadero Police Lt. John S. Barlow, who investigated the 1989 fires, said the incidents occurred between 9:30 a.m. and 12:09 p.m. along a three-mile stretch of El Camino Real.