PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Chicopee man was arrested in Great Barrington Thursday night and charged with setting a series of fires in the county in recent years.
Stuart Zimbrowski, 54, is being charged with 15 counts of burning the land of another, four counts of burning a building, seven counts of larceny under $250, three counts of breaking and entering in the daytime and two counts of larceny from a building. On Friday he had not guilty pleas entered on his behalf in Central Berkshire District Court on the charges. Judge Rita Koenigs ordered that he be held at the Berkshire County House of Correction without bail.
According to the state Fire Marshal Stephen Coan, Zimbrowski set fire to a vacant apartment in Great Barrington on March 8, a barn in Sandisfield on Jan. 19, and the same Marlborough building two times — once on June 16, 2011 and again on October 17, 2011 — as well as 15 brush fires between April 30, 2009 and April 5, 2012.
The investigation was completed by the State Police, New York State Police and fire departments in Dalton, Egremont, Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, New Marlborough, Sandisfield, Sheffield and Stockbridge.
"I want to commend the great investigative effort by so many fire and law enforcement agencies. This was a tremendous effort that has removed a serial arsonist from the community before he progressed from brush fires and vacant buildings to occupied ones,"Coan said in a press release. "Arson is not a victimless crime even when no one is hurt in a fire; the fear and anxiety communities feel in addition to the loss of property, significantly impacts the quality of life."
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