A man angry at the Department of Motor Vehicles because he couldn’t get his impounded car back faces charges for setting fire Monday to a Cadillac at the agency’s Daly City branch, a prosecutor said.

Hugo Carranza’s car was towed from a San Francisco street in October for unpaid fines and by Monday he still hadn’t gotten it back because he continued to owe the DMV money, said San Mateo County chief deputy district attorney Karen Guidotti.

So the 64-year-old Daly City resident doused the tires of a Cadillac Escalade with an accelerant and set them ablaze in the parking lot at 1500 Sullivan Ave. about 10 a.m.

He pleaded not guilty in San Mateo County Superior Court on Wednesday to arson and vandalism. He’s being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, Guidotti said.

A worker spotted the flames and doused them with a fire extinguisher, but not before the vehicle and a nearby Honda were damaged, Guidotti said. Carranza allegedly targeted the Cadillac because he believed, for reasons that remain unclear, it belonged to a DMV worker.

Carranza was arrested after turning himself in to a Daly City police lieutenant at the scene, Guidotti said.

Contact Joshua Melvin at 650-348-4335.