There were five fires set in Streator – one to a shed outside a church – in a span of 36 hours. Christopher S. Hall denied setting them. Police noted his hair and eyebrows were singed and saw a burn on his arm.

It was too much for a judge to grant Hall any form of pre-trial release. Hall will be detained in La Salle County Jail until he stands trial on five counts of arson. The most serious count, for damage outside Park United Church, carries up to 15 years.

Hall, 33, of Streator appeared Monday in La Salle County Circuit Court and, through a court-appointed lawyer, asked to be released into home confinement with GPS monitoring.

Assistant Public Defender Brad Popurella asked a judge to consider that Hall’s history includes completed probation – “So there is a history of compliance with court orders” – and that society could be protected if Hall were placed under electronic monitoring.

But Judge Michelle Vescogni shot that down after learning of a sequence of fires lit at various points in Streator – all were determined to be arson, the State Fire Marshal determined, according to court records – along with video and circumstantial evidence linking Hall to the spree.

Prosecutor Laura Hall said the first fire was a damaged fence spotted on Thursday outside Streator City Hall. There, an officer spotted a makeshift incendiary that he was able to put out with a fire extinguisher.

Much larger responses by first-responders were needed at the church and at a Streator property managed by the La Salle County Housing Authority. At the latter, prosecutors allege, residents had to be evacuated in the middle of the night.

Additional fires were reported to a shed at the Masonic Lodge and an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter, which sustained “significant structural damage.”

At several locations, police obtained video surveillance that helped them develop Hall as a suspect. When questioned, police noticed his singed hair and the burn on his arm. A K-9 officer also alerted to accelerant on Hall’s clothes.

“Christopher Hall is someone who needs constant and continuous surveillance to protect the community,” prosecutor Laura Hall said, “and home confinement cannot provide that.”

Vescogni agreed.

“This is brazen behavior,” the judge ruled, and spotlighted the burn on Hall’s arm. “That’s not a coincidence.”

A La Salle County grand jury will get Hall’s case on June 30. Hall will next appear July 16.