RICHMOND

A homeless man has been arrested and charged with a number of crimes including arson after police say he was squatting in vacant homes and lighting fires to stay warm.

Gary Martin, 59, a transient of Richmond, was arrested Sunday night and charged with violation of conditional release, criminal trespass, burglary and possessing a suspended drivers license. The state fire marshal’s office charged Martin with arson, according to Richmond Police Chief Scott MacMaster.

MacMaster said last week, Martin, who formerly lived on Post Road, was evicted and took up shelter in an abandoned trailer on Lancaster Road.

“While squatting in the trailer with a whole host of animals he was in possession of from prior residence, he thought it would be a good idea to start a fire in the trailer to maintain warmth for him and the animals,” MacMaster said.

Shortly before noon on March 20, firefighters responded to a small fire at a trailer located near the Maine Department of Transportation garage on Lancaster Road. MacMaster said Martin was taken to a hospital with smoke inhalation after the incident. Police made arrangements for his animals to be transported to an animal shelter. He had a bird, rabbit, dog and two cats.

The animals were dirty and covered in soot, but otherwise in good condition, MacMaster said.

MacMaster said Martin was seen back in town after that incident. Police worked with the state fire marshal’s office to see if there was evidence to charge Martin with arson, given that he started the fire in order to keep warm.

Police were trying to find out where Martin was staying, MacMaster said. Sgt. James Donnell and Officer Chris Giles determined he was likely staying in a vacant building along Main Street.

On Sunday night, Donnell and Giles found a fire in a large charcoal grill inside a barn at a foreclosed property at the corner of Main Street and Furlong Road. MacMaster said police entered the barn at that point and approached Martin, with whom Richmond police are familiar.

“They could immediately see where a fire had been set previously that had burned part of the barn and some of the support beams,” Mac- Master said.

They also saw where another fire had been set that spread into another room connecting the barn and the house, which had sparked yet another fire.

Firefighters extinguished the fire in the grill. Martin was arrested and taken to Two Bridge Regional Jail.

MacMaster said Martin had recently rented a U-Haul vehicle out of Augusta that he never returned. He allegedly had had the vehicle for a couple weeks when Richmond police stopped him last week and arrested him on a warrant issued out of Gardiner for failure to appear. Martin was summonsed then for having a suspended drivers license. The U-Haul was returned to the owner.

MacMaster said police didn’t want to abandon Martin and extended every resource they could to him, “but he was just reluctant to accept.”

MacMaster complimented Donnell and Giles for their work locating Martin, adding that if police hadn’t found him when they did, they could have been responding to a serious fire instead, and possibly a fatal one.

Martin is scheduled to appear in West Bath District Court on May 10.

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