Man arrested in probe of 5 O.C. fires

A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of setting five fires within a quarter-mile of each other in south Orange County, authorities said Tuesday.

Matthew Deason of Laguna Hills allegedly ignited the small blazes with a cigarette lighter Sunday night in adjacent areas of Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills.

The first fire started about 9:30 p.m. in a large commercial dumpster outside a vacant Mervyn’s store at Alicia Parkway and Charlinda Drive, said Capt. Greg McKeown of the Orange County Fire Authority. That blaze damaged the building.

The next fire was across Interstate 5 in a 10-foot by 10-foot grassy patch in Laguna Hills.

“You could see one fire from the other,” McKeown said.

Flames were reported just before 11 p.m. in the rear of a nearby two-story office building, causing about $500,000 in damage.

In the same parking lot, a fourth small fire occurred at a building under construction. It was quickly snuffed out.

The fifth fire, which burned itself out, was in an apartment complex recreation room near the vacant Mervyn’s store.

A fire investigator conducting surveillance of the burn areas Monday night spotted Deason, one of three “persons of interest” named by authorities, riding a bicycle, McKeown said. After being questioned by sheriff’s deputies, Deason confessed to acting alone and was arrested, officials said.

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susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com