Suspected spree arsonist charged in second fire
Jun. 7—An accused arsonist charged with setting one fire but suspected of several others that plagued Jessup and Lehigh Twp. this spring has been formally charged with sparking a second blaze.
Michael A. Yzkanin, 30, faces arson and related counts for setting fire April 15 to 573 Main St. in Gouldsboro.
The charges come about seven weeks after state police fire marshals accused him of setting fire to the former Gouldsboro Inn, 572 Main St., Lehigh Twp. on April 14. The vacant property is 240 feet from Yzkanin's home at 584 Main St.
Several other arson investigations remain open in Lackawanna and Wayne counties, in which Yzkanin was named a person of interest.
The other arsons in Gouldsboro are:
583 Main St., a home under renovation, reported around 3 a.m. April 14.
584 Main St., Yzkanin's home, where state police reported a fire in a stairwell to the basement around 6 a.m. April 16.
In Jessup, fires ruled arson were:
916 Church St., the former Library Pizza, a Jessup landmark that burned around 3 a.m. April 14.
609 4th Ave., a home under construction, that burned 10 p.m. April 15 and spread to two adjacent homes where a combined seven people were displaced.
His connection with the other fires in Lackawanna and Wayne counties remain under investigation, state police said.
According to a criminal complaint filed by Trooper Nicholas DeSantis, a state police fire marshal, passerby Jose Ingles saw smoke around 2:10 p.m. April 15 coming from 573 Main St., Lehigh Twp.
Then he saw a man flee into the woods. A state Game Commission officer who responded chased the man.
"Blue jeans, green hoodie, stop!" shouted the officer, according to body camera footage a trooper watched.
Yzkanin's fianceé, Karly Granza, told state police she saw a man wearing clothing similar to what Yzkanin had on when he left for work walking toward 573 Main St. shortly before the fire.
"She didn't want to admit that it was him, but deep down she knew he was the one," DeSantis wrote in an affidavit, summarizing an interview with Granza.
DeSantis wrote no one can account for Yzkanin's whereabouts minutes prior to the fire, during the fire and immediately after it was discovered.
Yzkanin remains jailed in the Wayne County Correctional Facility in lieu of $520,000 bail set between the arson cases and an institutional vandalism case brought because authorities accused him of destroying sprinklers in his cell.
He has a preliminary hearing on the new arson counts tentatively scheduled Wednesday. A hearing on the earlier arson case was continued Tuesday. It has not been rescheduled. A hearing for the vandalism case is scheduled June 21.
Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com, 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.
