Evesham man, 20, charged with arson

A 20-year-old resident of Evesham's Kings Grant section has been charged with setting two fires in the Pinelands enclave, where 13 arsons claimed eight wooded acres between June 11 and July 6.

James Dahl of Stafford Way was charged Friday with a June 21 fire on Dorchester Circle and a July 6 blaze behind Rice Elementary School, according to Evesham Lt. Walt Miller.

After his initial court appearance Monday, Dahl was returned to the Burlington County Jail with bail set at $100,000.

Dahl is expected to be charged in three more arsons this week, Miller said. The others remain under investigation.

Dahl, who lives with his parents, has mental-health and anger-management issues that his family has been trying to address, Miller said. His father, reached at home Monday, declined comment.

Dahl was charged with criminal mischief in the slashing of three tires on a neighbor's car June 18 and was on probation for the 2009 holdup of a drugstore on Taunton Lake Road, Miller said.

Local and state officials responded to the string of fires on the ground and by air, with helicopters dumping buckets of water to protect homes vulnerable during recent extremely dry conditions.

"Most of the fires were lit near occupied areas," Miller said, "and someone called them in, so they were contained quickly." He said it appeared that they were started in random locations.

The Kings Grant community, which has a population of about 10,000 in 2,500 homes, was planned in the 1970s to preserve much of the area's natural woods, said Joanne Bradley, executive director of the Kings Grant Open Space Association.

"We're very fortunate that none of the homes were burned," Bradley said. "The people here were very concerned."

Police received several tips about the arsons and uncovered physical evidence that linked them to Dahl, Miller said.

"There was the potential for a much larger fire," Miller said, adding that the state used considerable resources to fight the blazes.

Lawrence Hajna, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, said state officials had not totaled costs to fight the blazes.

With little rain in recent weeks and temperatures around 100 degrees, South and Central New Jersey have been placed on "very high" alert by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

The threat to homes was so serious during the run of arsons that firefighters set a controlled blaze to clear underbrush and reduce the threat of an uncontrollable fire.

"It certainly can happen very quickly when conditions are dry and windy," Hajna said.

In May, 500 acres in the Pinelands burned after two men lighted a campfire off Seneca Trail in the Country Lakes section in Burlington County. The men, who have been charged with arson, thought the fire was out, but a log reignited, and winds fanned flames through the forest.