A Ukiah man is suspected of lighting nine fires in barely an hour Wednesday afternoon at the south end of the city, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said.

Alberto Acosta. (Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office) 
The first fire was reported just before 5 p.m. Sheriff’s deputies responding to that fire heard of another about a mile away, and then a string of reports began coming in: more fires along South State Street, and sightings of a ponytailed man on a bicycle.

As firefighters from five agencies responded to the scenes, the sheriff’s office put out a call for surveillance video in an attempt to identify the culprit.

A possible identification came from an off-duty deputy who had driven past the scene of the last fires, a cluster of four around 6:15 p.m. near the Russian River. That deputy’s information led the office to issue a be-on-the-lookout notice for Alberto Vincent Acosta, 32, of Ukiah.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, Acosta was seen on foot by a Ukiah police officer on routine patrol. He was turned over to the sheriff’s office and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on three arson-related charges. His bail was set at $1 million, the sheriff’s office said.

Besides vegetation, the only damage from the fires was to the wooden deck of a home. An evacuation warning was briefly issued for residents of South Dora Street, where the first two fires were set.

Like most of California, Mendocino County has been on heightened fire alert during a week of dry, windy weather. A fire that started Monday in Covelo, 50 miles north of Ukiah, burned almost 200 acres before it was contained.