MCSO: Man arrested for allegedly setting Gualala community center on fire

A man was arrested Monday shortly after allegedly setting a fire that destroyed a community center on the Mendocino Coast, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported.

According to the MCSO, deputies were dispatched to the 47000 block of Center Street in Gualala around 4:10 a.m. Feb. 13 for a report of a possible arson at the Gualala Community Center.

Upon arrival, the deputies found personnel from “the South Coast Fire Protection District still in the process of extinguishing a large structure fire.”

Initial information from firefighters “suggested the fire may have been intentionally set,” and deputies then requested that “detectives with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and an arson investigator with the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority” respond to the scene.

Deputies accessed video surveillance footage that reportedly “showed a male individual igniting a fire at the location and then fleeing from the property on foot (while the) ignited fire spread rapidly within minutes and fully engulfed the structure.”

According to the MCSO, after watching the footage, deputies located a man in the 39000 block of South Highway 1 around 7:50 a.m. who was wearing the same clothing as the man seen igniting the fire.

The suspect was identified by the MCSO as Roland Joseph Eskind

Jr., a 53-year-old with no fixed address who reportedly “arrived in the Gualala area just day(s) before the arson.”

Eskind was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on suspicion of “willfully and maliciously setting fire to a structure.”

The MCSO describes the arson investigation as “ongoing,” and expressed thanks to the “South Coast Fire Protection District, the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, and the Gualala community for their assistance in this investigation.”