Upstate New York Man Charged With Multiple Arson Counts

A 43-year-old man has been charged with setting a string of fires that caused more than $500,000 in damage to several structures and vehicles in a northern New York village.

State police say Joseph King of Port Henry was charged earlier this week with arson, burglary and criminal mischief.

Troopers arrested King late on Jan. 1 after a series of fires broke out in Port Henry, on Lake Champlain 100 miles north of Albany. Police say he nearly struck several firefighters battling a blaze at the Mountain Lake Services offices.

Troopers charged him with driving while intoxicated. He was already in Essex County Jail when the new charges were filed.

King was fired by Mountain Lake Services in 2008.

No one was hurt in the fires.

It couldn’t be determined who was representing King.