BENTONVILLE — Firefighters arrived at 11887 Malone Road in Highfill too late to save the abandoned house. The roof and walls were gone. So they watched that hot July day as the remnants burned.

“Somebody lit it,” said Jeff Parks, assistant fire chief for the Highfill Fire Department “We can guarantee that. We just let it burn. It was fully involved when we arrived.”

Parks was one of the more than dozen firefighters at the Malone Road fire.

Other firefighters about a half-mile away were battling a fire at another abandoned house. They arrived in time to save the structure at 12220 Hendrix Road.

It was the third fire in the area in two days. A fire the day before destroyed an abandoned house at 12274 Haden Road. It’s about a half mile from the fire on Malone Road.

Sheriff’s Office deputies issued an alert for a gold minivan seen near the fires July 24. The information would pay off later in an arrest.

Marc Trollinger, Benton County fire marshal, has been called to at least 90 fires in the county this year. About 10 of those he deemed suspicious.

Dennis Ledbetter, Washington County’s fire marshal, reported two arsons in the county, two in Greenland and one in Farmington this year. An arrest was made in the Farmington case, Ledbetter said.

BAGGING A TROPHY

Dian Williams, the president of the Arson Research Center in Philadelphia, said arson crimes are tough to solve. Most arson fires are committed without witnesses, she said.

“Arsonist don’t have any desire to confess,” Williams said. “They are not the type of criminal that show up at a precinct to confess their crimes.”

More than 50 percent of the fires are set by juveniles, she said. Most of them stop setting fires once they grow up, she said.

“You don’t have a group of Einsteins in this group,” Williams said. “They talk and it is much easier to grab them because they tell someone.”

Williams described five types of adult arsonists. Among them are trophy arsonists. Their fire setting behavior lasts throughout their lives.

“They like big and dramatic fires,” Williams said. “They like to insert themselves into a fire scene.”

Trophy arsonists probably have set many more fires than law enforcement may expect, according to Williams. The trophy arsonists usually have to increase the size and danger of their fires over time.

“The excitement goes away unless they increase the risk,” she said.

They are the ones that will go up and ask questions of a firefighter at the scene.

“They do that because it is very exciting to them,” Williams said. “It reinforces how smart they are. There’s no fun in setting fires and dashing away.”

Trophy arsonists are almost always men, she said.

TRACKING A SUSPECT

Scott Gillming, a Gravette officer, heard the alert concerning the minivan from the July fires in Highfill and remembered an encounter with the driver of a gold minivan about the time of a fire in the Gravette area.

A two-story abandoned house on Stagecoach road burned July 16. A woman reported seeing a gold vehicle parked in the driveway. She called 911 after seeing smoke pouring out of the top floor of the house, according to court documents.

Gillming saw a gold minivan at the Phillip’s 66 gasoline station and stopped to check the vehicle. He talked with the driver and wrote down the license plate number before leaving to check on another gold vehicle seen in the area.

Gravette Fire Chief David Smith told Gillming that months earlier one of his firefighters saw a gold minivan leave the scene of an abandoned mobile home fire on Rocky Dell Road.

Gillming learned the van driver, Gary Hoggatt of Bentonville, was sentenced to seven years in prison almost 40 years ago for setting fire to Springdale church. Gillming provided sheriff’s detectives with the information, and they used it for a warrant to place a tracking device on Hoggatt’s van.

His arrest Aug. 5 came after Benton County detectives discovered Hoggatt’s vehicle near another abandoned house fire on Snavely Road in Cave Springs, according to court documents. Hoggatt was arrested in connection with four of the fires to abandoned structures in Benton County.

Hoggatt is charged with arson, a Class A felony, which is punishable with a prison sentence ranging from six to 30 years. His arraignment is set for Monday in Circuit Judge Robin Green’s court.

“We got lucky,” said Cpl. Greg Stevenson, a detective with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. “The GPS device sold it. It led us to the fire on Snavely Road.”

Stevenson was assigned the case.

The detective said Hoggatt said he drove his van 99 percent of the time.

Stevenson credits Gillming for providing crucial information that led them to getting the warrant.

Stevenson said there may have been a few other fires at abandoned homes, but Hoggatt is the suspect in six of the fires. Witnesses reported seeing the gold minivan at each of those six, according to Stevenson.

For example, no one reported seeing a gold van near the time of the Haden Road fire, Stevenson said.

Marcel Goulet was on the scene in 2009 each time firefighters responded to a series of fires. Will Hanna, then fire marshal for Benton County, spoke with Goulet at the scene of some of the fires in the Beaver Shores area.

“He tells me that they have an arsonist in the neighborhood,” Hanna recalled, according to court documents.

The statement was true. Goulet was the arsonist. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to two counts of arson. He admitting twice setting fire to a house at 8028 Cedar Drive.

Goulet was a suspect in another house fire and blaze in a wooded area.

PROSECUTING FIRES

A.J. Anglin, a Benton County deputy prosecutor, said arson cases were probably the most difficult ones for prosecutors until recently. Prosecutors not only had to prove what caused the fire, but they also had to go the extra yard and prove the fire was not caused by electrical problem, lightning or other causes.

There was a common law presumption in Arkansas a fire was accidental or the result of natural causes. Prosecutors first had to prove the fire wasn’t caused by accident or natural causes, before arguing arson.

Act 982 that went into law last month abolishes that presumption, Anglin said.

Anglin was assigned Robert Ray Miller’s arson case. Miller was arrested in 2007 in connection with a fire at the construction site of Suburban Extended Stay Hotel in Bentonville. The Oct. 27, 2007, fire caused more than $100,000 in damage, according to court documents.

Miller confessed to police he was responsible for the fire, according to court documents. Miller, who once worked in construction, told police he started the fire after seeing Hispanic workers at the construction site, according to court documents. Miller was originally charged with arson, but later pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and was sentenced as a habitual offender to 50 years in prison.

Anglin said the common law presumption was one of the reasons he offered a plea for criminal mischief instead of prosecuting the arson charge.

REBUILDING FROM ASHES

Blake Lasater and his congregation understand the damage and pain caused by an arsonist. Their church, Living Waters at Centerton, was set fire Sept. 15, 2011, and again the following morning. Lasater is the pastor of the church.

Centerton firefighters were called at 8 p.m. to the church at 424 Main St. Firefighters extinguished three small fires in the church: one in the basement, another in the ceiling and a third around the stage.

Firefighters left the scene shortly before midnight and were called back at 6:30 a.m. The fires caused extensive damage to the building. Lasater and his members had to go elsewhere to hold worship services.

The church rebuilt and will hold an open house Saturday at the Centerton location.

“We’ve grown a little closer since the fire,” Lasater said.

A fire investigator for State Farm Insurance found the fire was caused when gasoline was poured on the altar and floor. No arrests have been made.

“They never did arrest anyone, but it’s probably almost impossible to solve without any witnesses,” Lasater said. “It’s just an open case.”