Cops: High-Flying Vandal Threw Lights Before Fire

Before fire destroyed four beach cottages Sunday, a Trumbull man smoked pot in one of the cottages, scaled a radio transmission tower on the beach and threw some airplane warning lights, police said.

Witnesses told police they saw a man climb the 216-foot-high WICC radio transmission tower abutting Pleasure Beach and throw the lights to the ground shortly before they saw fire. 

Police identified the man as Kevin Stewart, 23. When police confronted him, Stewart admitted to climbing a tower, vandalizing it and smoked pot in a beach cottage. A candle was also burning in the cottage, the Connecticut Post reports.

That cottage is where the fire started about 4 p.m. Sunday before it spread to three others.

Stewart has been called a person of interest in the fire investigation and was charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespass. The investigation is ongoing.

This was the second set fire at the site in just over a year.
 

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