A homeless man who police say was squatting and scrapping metal in the second floor of an Upper Darby shoe store that caught fire Monday, growing into a four-alarm blaze, has been arrested, authorities announced Thursday.
Police and fire officials said that although the cause of the blaze is believed to be accidental, they determined through the course of their investigation that 54-year-old James Morris had been squatting on the second floor of the Payless ShoeSource on 69th Street near Chestnut for some time, and was inside when the fire started.
Morris has been charged with criminal trespass and theft and is being held on $50,000 cash bail. Authorities said that so far, they have found no indication that the fire was an arson.
"There was no type of accelerant found. We do believe whatever took place was not intentionally done," Upper Darby Fire Chief Edward Cubler said during the news conference.
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said Payless employees did not have access to the second floor of the building the store was inside, and that the second floor appears to have been abandoned. He said police believe Morris and possibly a handful of other people have been squatting in the building for some time. Investigators are looking into the possibility that there were illegal electric hookups in the second floor, but it was unclear Thursday whether the floor even had electric at the time of the fire.
On Monday around the time the fire ignited, Chitwood said, Morris was scrapping metal shelves out of the second floor and giving them to a second man, whom police brought in as a witness just before Thursday morning's news conference, in turn for beer and vodka. Chitwood said the man taking the scraps from Morris, who was captured on surveillance video shirtless and pushing a shopping cart filled with scraps around the time of the blaze, is not a suspect, but "an excellent witness" for investigators.
Chitwood said Morris has "a fairly extensive criminal record, but nothing major."
Upper Darby Mayor Thomas Micozzie assured business owners and residents that authorities were working to quickly reopen businesses affected by the fire. He said the only two businesses other than the Payless that are expected to be closed for any extended period of time are the two on either side of it.
A Studio Movie Grill is slated to open later this month on the same block where the fire occurred, which is near the Tower Theater. Micozzie thanked emergency responders who stopped the fire, saying it could have had a "devastating" financial impact on a business corridor that the township has long been working to revive.
"It's a minor setback, but it could have been a major setback," Micozzie said. "I see us rejuvenating and getting even better."
He added that he does not expect the opening of the Movie Grill and other business coming to the strip to be delayed as a result of the blaze.
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The four-alarm fire started on the floor above the Payless ShoeSource shortly before 6 p.m. Monday. Neighboring stores and about two dozen nearby homes were evacuated.
A firefighter was transported to the hospital due to heat exhaustion during the blaze. No other injuries were reported.
