Culminating months of work, investigators from the Fairfax County Fire Marshal’s Office have charged a Fairfax man with two felonies for allegedly setting fires in homes while their occupants were asleep. He is Mergen Battulga, 37, of Fair Oaks.
He was charged with one count of maliciously burning an occupied dwelling and one count of maliciously setting a fire capable of spreading. His arrest was in connection with four fires on Mozart Brigade Lane and one blaze on Fairfield House Way in Fair Oaks.
Battulga was arrested last Friday, Feb. 7, shortly after noon. He was arraigned in court Monday, Feb. 10, and is currently being held without bond in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
“We believe this gentlemen to be a serial arsonist,” said Chief Fire Marshal Mike Reilly. “Over the last six months, we’ve had a series of five fires in the Fair Oaks area. We’ve done exhaustive investigative work and developed him as a suspect. So far, he’s only been charged with two offenses, but the investigation is still ongoing.”
All the homes were near Monument Drive, within a half-mile radius of each other, and all were garden apartments. Reilly said a couple of the fires were started in areas that had sprinkler systems, so they were able to be extinguished early before major damage was done.
However, he noted that all the homes were occupied when their fires began. “Many of the fires occurred between 2-5 a.m., when people are sleeping, so dire circumstances could have resulted,” said Reilly. “These fires could have caused a significant loss of life and property had there not been fire-protection systems in place that caught them.”
He said 15 or 16 investigators have been working tirelessly on these cases and continue to do so. And he praised them for their hard work.
“I’m so proud of my investigators – they’re an outstanding crew,” said Reilly. “Arson fires are difficult to solve without an eyewitness or the perpetrator being caught in the act. But these investigators have put in an extensive amount of time and effort and, in the end, it paid off.”