Palo Alto Police Warn Churches of Arsonist : Crime: Buildings of three different denominations have been hit. Authorities are not speculating on a motive.

Police are warning religious leaders in Palo Alto to beware of an arsonist who has set fire to three churches of different denominations--including a Methodist church torched two days before Christmas.

Church officials said the arsonist may have targeted the three churches because they all provide shelter to homeless people. Palo Alto authorities, however, declined to speculate on the motive of the suspect or say whether they are investigating the blazes as hate crimes.

In one case, a man carrying a can of lighter fluid was confronted by a vicar just before fire broke out at a Lutheran church. He told the vicar he was going to a barbecue and fled on a bicycle.

The rash of fires has alarmed the religious community in this quiet, affluent city of 56,000, known for its elegant homes and intellectual climate. Churches that once remained open for worship all day are now shutting their doors because of the fires.

“It’s a horrendous thing,” said Clyde Dodder, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, where staff members have heightened security because of the arson attacks. “Some people have tremendous antagonism toward churches and it’s entirely logical they would express that during the high holiday season.”

The first two fires were set in October, causing an estimated $50,000 damage to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and more than $100,000 to Trinity Lutheran Church. The third attack, on Dec. 23, caused relatively minor damage to Wesley United Methodist Church.

As a result of the latest attack, police began warning about 40 churches and synagogues in Palo Alto this week of the possibility of more fires. Police advised clergy and staff members to watch for a tall, white man, 40 to 42 years old, with graying dark hair, a mustache and a white bicycle.

“Three churches have been hit already,” said Palo Alto Police Detective Bob Beacom. “Common sense tells us we should let the others know.”

So far, Beacom said no link has been established between the Palo Alto arson and any fires in neighboring cities.

On the afternoon of Oct. 21, Vicar Wiley Smith had just returned to Trinity Lutheran when he saw a man coming out of the church carrying a bicycle. The man said, “I guess I should have left my bicycle outside,” and Smith agreed.

The man, who was wearing a faded white-and-gray flannel shirt, then went back into the church, emerged with a large lighter fluid container and got on his bicycle.

The vicar said he confronted the man and asked what he was doing. As he pedaled away, the man replied, “I’m going to a barbecue.”

Smith went into the church to see if anything was amiss and found the sacristy--a small room where sacred vestments are kept--ablaze.

He rushed to call 911 and quickly used up the contents of a small fire extinguisher with little effect.

Police were unable to find the man on the bicycle.

The fire destroyed the sacristy and much of the main church hall, forcing Trinity Lutheran to hold its services in other rooms while repairs are under way. The church also has abandoned its policy of keeping its doors open when church officials are away.

Smith said he has asked himself repeatedly why he did not attempt to tackle the man as he rode off. Now, he says, he finds it hard to forgive the arsonist.

“We pray for him,” Smith said, “but I must be quite honest. My prayers bounce between his repentance and an imprecatory prayer that God would take vengeance on him.”

At Wesley Methodist, the arsonist apparently broke into the church Dec. 23 by smashing a stained glass window in a door, said former church Trustee Bob Kavinoky. The fire was set in a closet where acolytes’ vestments were stored.

A printer working next door smelled smoke when he went outside about 8:50 a.m. and called the Fire Department before the blaze could spread.

“It could have been much worse,” Kavinoky said. “We were very fortunate.”

The three churches that were set on fire are among 12 Palo Alto churches that take turns housing homeless people for a month each year. Police are investigating the possibility that the suspect may have some link to the city’s homeless population but so far have no evidence.

Officials at other churches said they were concerned over the fires and had heightened security as much as possible after receiving the police warning.

“I think about it and shudder,” said Jack McDaniel, pastor of the Palo Alto Baptist Church.