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A 62-year-old Rossmoor resident was arrested for arson on Friday, April 6, according to the Contra Costa County Fire District.
Fire district investigators and the Walnut Creek Police Department arrested Brent Robert Kastroff at his home in connection with a fire in May 2011 as well as fires in January and March of this year.
The January fire occurred on private property on Vista Del Valle in Lafayette that contained three homes and nearly 90 acres of grass covered land. The investigation led to the discovery of a previously unreported fire in May of 2011 in the same area; however there were no leads in either incident.
Last month, investigators received information about a third fire on the same property that was similar to the previous two. After canvassing the neighborhood for witness information, investigators contacted Kastroff at his home, which is adjacent to the property where the three fires had been discovered.
Kastroff admitted to starting the fires, but stated that he did not feel he had done anything wrong because the fires were small and he had only started some pieces of paper on fire which caused small spots of grass to burn. He was booked into the Martinez Detention Facility on three counts of arson to forest land; his bail is set at $225,000.
Kastroff has a history of fire setting dating back to 1995 and, in 1998, was arrested in San Rafael for setting fire to small papers in a trash can.
Anyone with information of additional fires that may be associated with Kastroff should contact the district’s fire investigation unit at 942-9140 or call the arson tip line at 1-866-502-7766.
