By George P. Hassett

Ten foot flames shot out of garbage cans on Tufts and Dell Streets on Saturday as a man allegedly set fire to six neighborhood trash barrels as he walked his dog, police said.

Daniel L. Villarreal, 25, of Cambridge, allegedly lit fires in front of 53 Tufts Street and 8, 10, 14, 16 and 22 Dell St. early Saturday morning. And, police said, he returned a short time later to survey the damage.

The first officers to arrive on scene shortly before 4 a.m. witnessed intense flames from the garbage can in front of 53 Tufts St., police said. The fire spread to a nearby car – which was destroyed – and melted the vinyl siding of the home, they said.

While firefighters extinguished that fire, Officer Richard Lavey turned the corner onto Dell Street and saw five more fires burning in trash barrels and recycling bins. With a resident of Dell Street, Lavey used a garden hose to extinguish one of the fires that had caught on to a parked car.

‚ÄúAll these fires were located on narrow sidewalks within six feet of the dwellings. If  these fires had gone unnoticed for a minute or two longer they may have communicated to the dwellings,‚Äù Lavey wrote in his incident report.

As firefighters worked to put out the blazes, Lavey said he remembered a resident of Dell Street had installed a camera in his house because of past vandalism incidents in the neighborhood.

“I knew if this camera were taping it may have caught the suspect in the act as two of the fires were directly opposite [the] home,” Lavey wrote.

Lavey retrieved the tape and watched it more than 12 times with investigators from the Fire Department, police said. On it, they saw a man, walking with a black Labrador retriever, bend over the trash in front of 10 Dell St. and light a fire, police said. On the video, flames erupt from the trash as he walks away and sets another fire in front of 8 Dell St., police said.

When Lavey returned to 53 Tufts Street to remove the burned up car from the street, police said he saw a familiar face: the man who he had just seen lighting fires on video. Villarreal not only matched the figure on the video but he was also walking a Labrador retriever, police said.

According to arson investigators, it is common for arsonists to return to the scene of fires to watch the fire and firefighting efforts. Lavey stopped Villarreal, who police said appeared to be drunk, and cuffed him.

Villarreal denied setting the fires but Lavey told him to “save his breath,” they had him on video.

Villarreal allegedly told police he had a history with fires: he said that when he was younger his family’s home had burned down after a cousin threw a cigarette into some insulation, police said. He was arrested and charged with defacing property and destruction of property worth more than $250.

A woman was also arrested in connection with the incident. Susan McClaughry, 30, of 59 Tufts St., was arrested and charged with assault and battery on a police officer and disorderly conduct after she allegedly attacked Lavey while he was interviewing her as a witness. Villarreal had allegedly told Lavey he was with McClaughry when the fires broke out.