Man Set Truck On Fire In Bergen County School Parking Lot: Prosecutors

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — A man who set fire to a truck in the parking lot of a Bergen County school has been charged with arson, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Patrick A. Fearon, 26, whom prosecutors say is homeless, has been charged with aggravated arson, arson, burglary, criminal mischief, and failure to control or report a dangerous fire, said the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

Shortly after midnight on Sept. 19, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, Hackensack Police Department, and Hackensack Fire Department responded to a vehicle fire in the parking lot of Bergen County Academies at 200 Hackensack Ave.

The school is a countywide public magnet school.

First responders found two vehicles fully engulfed in fire, prosecutors said.

The county Arson Squad "determined that a fire was intentionally set to a locked, unoccupied Ford F350 pickup truck owned by the County of Bergen. That fire spread to another pickup truck also owned by the county of Bergen, which was parked adjacent to the first vehicle.

"The joint investigation revealed that Patrick A. Fearon approached the vehicle in the parking lot, shattered the driver’s-side window of the pickup truck, set the fire using an accelerant, and then fled the area without notifying the authorities of the fire."

Fearon was charged the day of the fire, but his whereabouts were unknown. While he was homeless, prosecutors said he formerly lived in Hackensack.

This past Friday, he was found and apprehended without incident in Teaneck, prosecutors said.

He was taken to the Bergen County Jail to await his first court appearance in Bergen County Superior Court.