Police found a man sitting just feet from a burning building. He said he ‘set it on fire,’ records show

A Sarasota man has been charged with arson after a fire broke out in a restaurant and beer garden Tuesday morning.

Sarasota Police officers were patrolling the area of the 400 block of North Lemon Avenue around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday when they saw “thick, black smoke” coming from the rear of Mandeville Beer Garden, 428 N. Lemon Ave., and saw flames when they pulled into the parking lot.

When they arrived, officers saw 39-year-old Joe Thompson sitting in a chair about 10 feet from the building facing the fire, according to police.

Officers asked Thompson what was going on. He replied, “They told me to clean it up, so I set it on fire,” according to the probable cause affidavit. The officers pulled Thompson away from the flames. His clothes were collected as evidence in the investigation.

Sarasota County firefighters put out the flames and the State Fire Marshal’s Office determined the fire was started by a lighter, but did not suspect an accelerant was used, according to the affidavit.

A phone injunction box and the wires connecting to it were damaged in the fire, according to police. The flames also came within a few feet of a nitrogen tank and a propane line.

Thompson was taken to the Sarasota County jail.

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Police found a man sitting just feet from a burning building. He said he ‘set it on fire,’ records show."