Crime & Safety

Cops: Ward Admitted to Setting East Hampton Fires

According to defendant's statement about the car arson, "I felt like lighting something on fire."

In a sworn statement given to  detectives on Monday, Christopher S. Ward admitted to setting the fires he was accused of in court on Tuesday, one which caused the injuries of two firefighters and a fire marshal in May.

Detective Lt. Chris Anderson said it was a second, smaller fire to a 1984 Porsche on Oct. 29 just before midnight that led his department to question Ward about the house fire. Ward told detectives: "I felt like lighting something on fire, I lit the car cover underneath the license plate," according to the felony complaint filed at East Hampton Town Justice Court on Tuesday.

Further questioning revealed, this wasn't the first fire Ward had set. There were several commonalities, Anderson said, between the two fires. Ward then made oral admissions that he had started the fire at 62 Osborne Lane, the very house he had squatted in, leading to trespass and larceny charges back in February.

Find out what's happening in East Hamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I stayed there a lot and rented porno movies and smoked cigarettes," Ward said in the sworn statement. "I ordered Newsday and basically hung whenever I was in the house."

Following his arrest on Feb. 28, he was released from police custody on his own recognizance. The day after his arrest, he walked by the house on his way from home on Atlantic Street. to work as a grocery clerk at , he said. "I remember stopping and thinking about burning the house down but I thought better of it and just kept walking . . ."

Find out what's happening in East Hamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In the statement, he admitted to going back to house on several occasions, but only sitting in the backyard and smoking, including on the night of May 2. He recalled urinating into the pool and sitting on a lounge chair to drink a Budweiser. He made a few attempts to make a small fire on the deck with some leaves, twigs, and sparks from his Zippo lighter, he said, but the fires didn't last long.

Another attempt took and grew. "I started stomping on it 'cause I wanted to put it out and get it under control again, but it wasn't working, the deck was burning good at this point." He couldn't find a hose, so he attempted to urinate on the flames. He said, ". . . that helped but not much."

He told police he was scared and ran away, but came back to see "smoke coming from the deck shooting up into the sky." He left, again, and went home. "I went to sleep that night and tried not to think about it."

When detectives showed him pictures of burnt marks on the siding of the house, his story changed: He said he had been "bored and cold" and tried to light the siding on fire to stay warm.

The East Hampton Fire Department responded to the fire early on the morning of May 3, and extinguished it. One firefighter, though, went through a weak floorboard on the deck, and another fell through a small hole on the second floor, landed on a fire marshal, who went through the first floor. All three men were released with minor injuries.

Ward recalled walking to work the next day and hearing the homeowner crying to investigators. "I am sorry for what happened, I was just trying to get warm. I didn't mean it." Greg Sherman, the homeowner, told police about $360,000 in damage was done to the house.

The cause of the fire was marked undetermined by fire investigators.

Of the Porsche fire, Ward said he went out drinking after his shift on Oct. 29. He had five Budweiser's at  and a rum and coke at . He described himself as "pretty wasted" when he started walking home.

When he got to Miller Lane, he stopped at the driveway where the blue Porsche was parked and protected with a cover. "I was thinking at the time I knew I wanted to light something on fire. I walked over to the back of the car and I lit the car cover on fire with a lighter I had with me."

"I watched the cover burn for about a minute. . .," he said, adding that setting the fire being "stupid," so he "tried stomping the fire out with my shoe to put it out." He used his backpack and his foot, again, until it went out.

According to a statement from Richard Familetti, the Porsche owner, the external rear engine cover was burnt, as was the cover, and the rear bumper was melted. He estimated about $2,000 in damages.

When he neared home, he said he stashed his "goods" -- a box of Newport cigarettes, a box cutter, three Bic lighters, and two cellphones he had taken from lost and found at work -- in a mailbox. Police have recovered the lighters.

Ward is being held at the Suffolk County jail in Riverside on $50,000 bail.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.