Police reports: Man admitted how Kalamazoo fires sparked

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man accused of arson admitted to investigators that he started several fires around Kalamazoo in recent months, police reports show, generally by using his lighter to set small pieces of paper, cardboard or trash on fire.

George Stanard, 32, was charged earlier this month with eight counts of arson in the fires, most of which were at vacant buildings dating back to June 11.

Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety police reports obtained by News 8 show Stanard was interviewed by investigators after his arrest on Sept. 5. They say he first admitted that he witnessed two of the fires and that he called called 911 to report the one a vacant commercial building on Water Street downtown on Sept. 3. He initially denied setting any fires.

“I told Stanard that I did not believe that he did not start many of the fires in the abandoned buildings,” an investigator wrote in the reports. “I explained that he has been captured on video surveillance on several scenes, and that of these fire investigations, the manner in which the fire started and that location in which the fire started were all the same. I told him I did not believe it was a coincidence that his presence was captured in the scene of these fire investigations if he didn’t start the fires.”

A geographic outlier in the fires sparked in the early hours of Sept. 2 at a recycling center on Kilgore Road west of the airport. When told police had video of him starting the fire, the reports show, Stanard admitted to using his lighter to set cardboard on fire.

“Before I could even try and put it out, it was dry cardboard, it had just instantly started spreading,” the document says Stanard told investigators.

The police report said investigators told Stanard that the video showed he never tried to put it out and instead watched it for about a minute before walking away.

Pressed by investigators who said they believed he started as many as eight fires, Stanard replied, “I’m just trying not to go to prison,” the reports say. They say that when the investigator asked which fires Stanard started, he gave more details.

The reports say Stanard admitted to sparking an Aug. 24 fire on Riverview Drive near Bridge Street by setting his cigarette pack on fire.

“…(B)efore I left I just sat it down on the back porch and grabbed my stuff to leave and I don’t know why,” the report says Stanard said. “I spaced out. I just didn’t even think about it and just walked away.”

It was a similar story for other fires on Walnut Street on June 12 and Westnedge Avenue on Aug. 20 — the reports say Stanard told investigators that he lit papers and bits of garbage on fire and panicked when the buildings caught fire.

In the case of a June 12 fire on Gladys Street , he said, he was “making like a homemade flame thrower” with a can of body spray. He said he was “(expletive) around with that” when an abandoned building caught fire.

The first fire was June 11 on Allen Boulevard near W. Main Street. It started in a vacant building and then spread to two other buildings — one of them an occupied quadplex. Everyone inside escaped, but all three buildings were so badly damaged they had to be demolished. The reports say Stanard told investigators that fire sparked when he was “trying to use his lighter as a flashlight” to look inside the vacant house. They said he took off and when he came back a few minutes later, he thought the fire had gone out because he didn’t see anything. Later, the reports said, he learned how the fire had spread.

Investigators say surveillance video from “multiple” fires led them to identify Stanard as the suspect on Sept. 4 — the day after the last two fires on Water Street and a mixed-use building on Portage Street near E. Walnut Street.

Stanard said the fire on Water Street sparked after he was “(expletive) around with my lighter and a piece of cardboard,” the reports said.

“…I was lighting it, I lit it and then I threw it and it went underneath the back porch thing right there. When it did, it caught some old boards on fire,” the reports say Stanard told investigators.

He said the fire on Portage street was also started when he lit a piece of cardboard that was against the back door on fire, the reports said.

“I just lit it and was standing there for a minute,” the reports quote Stanard as saying.

The police report said that when the investigator asked Stanard if he liked fire, “he replied that he hates fire.” It said Stanard added that when he was 18, his baby daughter died in a fire in Sturgis. He said he was in Kalamazoo when that fire happened and did not start it.

The police reports add that Stanard “adamantly denied” setting fires at two vacant homes on Humphrey Street and Sherwood Avenue on Aug. 28 and named Toby Knight as the person responsible for them. Last week, Knight was charged with arson in those fires. Police say they got “several tips” that Knight set those fires. Investigators say Knight admitted that he did it to serve as a diversion while he broke into a Kalamazoo business and stole $10,000 worth of tools.

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