Arrest made in 8 Stowe arson fires

January 15, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

The Stoware Common building on South Main Street in Stowe was destroyed by an intentionally set fire in March 2019. File photo by Gordon Miller.

Security camera footage from yet another arson in Stowe on Jan. 7 led to the arrest this week of a 62-year-old man who confessed to setting eight fires in his community since March 2019. 

Jeffrey Nolan of Stowe admitted to investigators that he intentionally set fires that resulted in property damage estimated at “well over $1.5 million,” according to a police statement after his arrest. 

Nolan was charged with eight counts of second degree arson and appeared in Washington Superior Court on Wednesday. 

The charges stemmed from fires that included a commercial complex at 638 South Main St. and the the Stowe Public Library on March 30, 2019; a chiropractor’s office at 14 Pond St. on April 18, 2019; a three-bay garage and storage building at 120 South Main St. on June 1, 2020; a South Main Street commercial building and a dumpster on River Road, both in August 2020; and two fires at 172 Thomas Lane, the offices of Stowe Cable Systems, the first on Aug. 30, 2020, and the next on Jan. 7. 

Vermont State Police fire investigator Det. Sgt. Todd Ambroz announced the arrest that resulted after a lengthy joint investigation involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Stowe Police and the Vermont Department of Public Safety Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit. 

Court documents detailed how the crack in the case finally came after the Jan. 7 fire for which there was security camera footage that linked Nolan to the scene. That led police to question him and he eventually admitted to the crime and seven prior arsons. 

No one was injured in the fires.