Man arrested as serial arsonist
Lake Express Market one of six targets
A 62-year-old Bakersfield man is in custody, facing several counts of arson, announced Calfire.
Among the fires Philip Clayton Scruggs is accused of setting is the Lake Express Market fire off of Highway 190 on July 6.
Scruggs is charged with six felony counts of arson, including the fire on July 7 at the Renegade Prune Company facility. The fires he is accused of setting date back to April and the most recent fire he is accused of setting was a haystack fire on East Morton Avenue on July 20, the day he was arrested.
Calfire said they worked with Tulare County Fire, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, Tulare County District Attorney’s office, Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the Kern County Fire Department.
The suspect was arrested the afternoon of Thursday, July 20, outside of a store on West Henderson Avenue.
The release said the man is accused of setting a total of six fires, including a fire along Globe Drive in the Springville area. Calfire said all of the fires occurred in the Springville and Porterville areas.
“Calfire investigators continue to work diligently to apprehend individuals that threaten the lives and property of our citizens through willful acts of arson,” said Calfire Tulare Unit Chief Marc Hafner.
Count 1 is for a fire on Aug. 20 at Avenue 234 and Road 193 to property owned by Bartlett Construction. Count 2 occurred on June 8 on Worth Drive..
The next count for which he is charged is the Globe Fire, a wildland
fire, on July 5 near Springville. Count 4 is the market fire which did in excess of $400,000 damage and Count 5 is the packing house fire which did in excess of $250,000 in damage.
Scruggs is scheduled to appear in the Tulare County South County Justice Court on July 28 for a preliminary hearing conference. His bail was set at $250,000. According to
the district attorney’s office, Scruggs is facing as much as a sentence of 42 years in state prison if convicted.
On each count he has added special allegations of arson with aggravating factors and having prior convictions for arson, which were in Kern County. Officials also said Scruggs has ties to the Porterville and Terra Bella areas.