Police: Fire Was Started by Man With History of Arson

A man who served time in prison for starting a fire in 2006 that destroyed a Philadelphia shelter for men battling alcoholism and drug addiction was arrested this week for allegedly starting a brush fire in Lawrence Township.

Lawrence Township police said they arrested Paul Wilkins, 29, of Kirk Avenue, Ewing Township, on Wednesday (March 27) and charged him with arson in connection with the blaze that burned a small area of woods behind the Exxon gas station at the corner of Brunswick Pike (Business Route 1) and Texas Avenue two days earlier.

It was 9:21 p.m. on Monday, March 25, when township police and volunteer firefighters were alerted to the blaze.

The fire was quickly extinguished, with no significant damage reported. With snow and rain having fallen earlier in the day, investigators deemed the blaze to be of suspicious origin and soon determined that two paper towels had been deliberately set alight to start the blaze, police said.

As part of their investigation, police identified Wilkins as a suspect and took him into custody on Wednesday.

According to published news accounts, Wilkins was sentenced to 60 months in prison for starting the three-alarm fire that on Feb. 25, 2006, destroyed the thrift-store warehouse and much of the adjacent dormitory of the Whosoever Gospel Mission in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.

Wilkins, a former resident of the shelter, was also accused at the time of setting other fires at the mission and the nearby Circle of Hope Church in Germantown.

Following his arrest in Lawrence Township, Wilkins was lodged in the Mercer County Correction Center in lieu of $15,000 bail, police said.