OCEAN COUNTY – A Berkeley Township man is facing multiple arson charges after investigators concluded he intentionally set three separate fires inside his Harbor Court home, authorities said.
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said 70-year-old George DiPierro was arrested after emergency crews responded to the residence shortly after noon on November 15 and found signs of multiple fires throughout the house.
Police and firefighters arriving at the scene discovered smoke coming from the first floor, where an extinguished fire had originated in the southwest corner of the house.
Fire crews searching the home then located two additional fires in separate second-floor bedrooms and put them out, officials said.
A joint investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit-Arson Squad, the Berkeley Township Police Detective Bureau, the Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office and its K-9 Unit, the Berkeley Township Fire Prevention Bureau, and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Crime Scene Investigation Unit determined all three fires had been deliberately set using an open flame and nearby combustible materials.
Detectives later identified DiPierro, who lived in the home, as the person responsible. He was arrested at the scene without incident and taken to the Ocean County Jail, where he remains pending a detention hearing.
Billhimer credited the cooperating agencies for their work in piecing together the case.
