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Man arrested in Christmas Day boat fire
UPDATE 5 P.M.: Sawyer has been arrested and is in custody at the Travis County Jail with bond set at $20,000.
EARLIER: Austin Fire Department arson investigators have arrested a man suspected of starting a fire at a boat dock on Lady Bird Lake on Christmas Day.
Matthew Ryan Sawyer, 20, has been charged with criminal mischief, a first-degree felony. He is not in custody, according to jail records.
According to an arrest affidavit, firefighters were dispatched to a large fire at the boat docks just north of the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Lady Bird Lake about 2 p.m. Christmas Day. They found a two-story party boat owned by Capital Cruises fully engulfed in flames. The fire spread to an adjoining dock, and damaged two other nearby boats. Damage from the fire was estimated at more than $200,000, the affidavit said.
The owner of Capital Cruises later told investigators that during a cleanup, he found several items on one of the smaller boats that had been removed from a larger boat, the affidavit said. That included some alcohol, soda cans, and sterno cans, a type of fuel designed to be burned directly from the can for heating purposes. He also found a cordless phone normally located on the smaller boat, the affidavit said.
Using the phone, investigators traced calls made on the days leading up to the fire to two cell phones in Seguin, the affidavit said. The cell phones were owned by Sawyer’s parents, the affidavit said, and they admitted to getting calls from him before the fire.
Investigators spoke to Sawyer, who told them he had been sleeping inside the smaller boat and broke into the larger one to get some supplies, the affidavit said. He was using the sterno cans for warmth, the affidavit said. On Christmas Day, Sawyer spilled some of the fuel from the sterno can onto a table cloth, and when he lit the can for warmth, a fire spread across the boat, the affidavit said.
Before the fire on the large boat occurred, Sawyer spilled the contents of the sterno can onto a tarp covering the smaller boat, which caused a fire when he lit it, the affidavit said.
Sawyer told investigators he panicked when the fire started spreading and ran away from the boat, the affidavit said. He remained at the scene until firefighters arrived, then took a bus to South Austin.
