One Vallejo homeless man in was custody Monday after allegedly hitting another homeless Vallejo man with a hammer and setting him on fire, Vallejo police and fire officials said.

Former friends, now both homeless and living in the abandoned former Vallejo City Unified School District offices on Valle Vista Avenue, Lewis Arvelle King, 41 and Kevin Jacobs, 47 had a “falling out,” which prompted King to allegedly “strike Jocobs in the head with a hammer and set his pants on fire in an attempt to kill him,” Lt. Herman Robinson said. “The victim told us that he awoke to a fire that he tried to put out when he was hit in the head from behind with a claw hammer by Lewis, who fled on foot to the 3400 block of Sonoma Boulevard – to the Vallejo Plaza – where he was arrested.”

Firefighters responded to the scene, and were able to knock the small blaze down with a fire extinguisher, battalion Chief Cliff Campbell said.

Some 15 to 20 homeless individuals were evacuated from the abandoned building, Campbell said.

“(Homeless camping in the building) has been an ongoing problem,” since the district vacated the property to take up residence in new digs on Mare Island in 2008, he said.

King was booked into the Solano County jail on suspicion of attempted murder, while Jacobs was taken to a local hospital, Robinson said.