Cops: Man admits setting 20 forest fires

Police said a South Jersey man has been arrested for allegedly setting more than 20 brushfires over the last two years.

Dennis Casario, 62, was apprehended after New Jersey Forest Fire Service officials saw him pull over on Beebetown Road in Winslow on Tuesday, start a fire in the brush, and leave the scene, Winslow Township police said.

Authorities had been conducting surveillance in the area after multiple forest fires were deliberately set there over the last several weeks, police said.

When detectives tracked Casario down to his home and interviewed him, the Winslow Township man admitted he had set more than 20 brushfires over the last two years throughout the township's Cedarbrook section, authorities said.

The fire service sometimes conducts controlled burns, but Casario is not affiliated with the agency or any other fire department, police said in a statement.

He has been charged with arson. Police said more charges were pending for fires set prior to Tuesday's blaze.

The area is wooded, but with homes spread out through the vicinity, said Winslow Police Lt. Chris Dubler, "It definitely, 100 percent, could have turned into an issue."

Casario was being held in the Camden County jail on $75,000 bail.

Staff writer Rita Giordano contributed to this article.