The suspect's latest target: a well-known township landmark, an old barn at Meadowbrook Farm, which almost went up in smoke.
"It was lit up like daylight," said the barn's owner, Wes Hackman.
Hackman was alerted by a passing police officer at just after 4:00 a.m Thursday that his barn was on fire. Someone had doused an old mattress on the ground floor with gasoline and set it on fire. It had started burning through the floor boards above as firefighters arrived.
"We were very lucky," Hackman told Action News. "If the fire company had not been as prompt as it was, this whole place would have gone up."
This was the latest in a string of seven arsons in the township, six of them over the past four weeks. The arsonist started with sheds and gazebos, but two of the fires were set on the porches of occupied houses.
"When you start off and there are detached sheds and gazebos burning, and now actual homes are set on fire, we're very concerned," said Lower Makefield Twp. Police Chief Kenneth Coluzzi.
Police believe the fires were all started by one person using gasoline in most cases. They have gathered bags and pails full of evidence, hoping to identify the arsonist before someone gets killed.
The fires were all started in the wee hours of the morning when people are home in bed.
"It's a very dangerous situation, and a very demented individual going around the township doing these fires," said Coluzzi.
The owners of Meadowbrook Farm take pride in their barn. There's a lot of history inside, and a lot of memories.
"If our barn died, or burned down, you could never replace it," said Fay Hackman. "It's part of this whole place."
The police have choice words for whoever is doing this.
"It's a profile of a very sick, demented individual, bent on harming people," said Coluzzi.
The police are asking everyone to be extra alert. This time it was only property, but the police say lives are now on the line.
