Police: Man with lighter next to burning kiosk tells officer he did it

Site staff by Site Contributor

An intoxicated man standing next to a burning kiosk in downtown Madison Friday holding a lighter told police he started the fire, officials said.

The Madison Police Department said an officer in the 600 block of State Street at 11:45 p.m. saw a man with a smile on his face standing near the burning kiosk.

According to the report, the officer asked him if he did it, and the man, 44-year-old Liam G. Woods-Smith, said “I did.”

Woods-Smith reportedly gave the officer a California ID card and threw a lime green lighter on the ground, police said. He told the officer he started the fire “with this,” indicating the lighter.

After reportedly confessing, Woods-Smith told the officer he was taking “the fifth.”

Woods-Smith was arrested on suspicion of arson.

Madison Fire arrived to put out the blaze, which a city of Madison Mall concourse supervisor estimated caused several thousand dollars worth of damage.

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