LEWISTON — Police and fire investigators continued their search Friday for clues that might lead them to suspects in four arsons and one attempted arson from a day earlier in the city’s downtown.

Sgt. Detective Brian O’Malley said police detectives were reviewing hours of video from surveillance cameras in the area of the fires, beginning several hours before flames or smoke were detected in an effort to develop suspects. The cameras are located on utility poles, streetlights and traffic signals as well as at businesses and residences.

The fires started at about 1 a.m. Thursday and ended at about 4:30 a.m., O’Malley said.

“It takes a while to go through it all,” he said. “We’re hoping we get something from it.”

Some cameras were installed in the wake of a rash of three arson fires that occurred within an eight-day period nearly a year ago. More cameras have been added since.

Moreover, investigators have interviewed dozens of witnesses and expect to interview dozens more who were in the buildings that burned or were nearby, O’Malley said.

Investigators are following up on the many leads they’ve received, he said.

Police, who are working with the Office of the Maine State Fire Marshal, hadn’t identified any suspects publicly as of Friday.

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Arson experts say the person or persons who started Thursday’s fires likely will fit into one of several sub-categories of arsonists.

According to Dr. Mary Mavromatis, a New York psychiatrist who has written on serial arson and pyromania, the subgroups include profit-motivated; gang-related; out for revenge; intellectually challenged; young boys and adolescents; and pyromaniacs.

Mavromatis said arson fires can more generally be divided into those that are random and those that are planned.

Investigators likely would be researching the ownership of the apartment buildings as well as their property management services in an effort to rule out fires motivated by finances or as retribution.

Arson fires involving young children, a person with an intellectual disability or with psychosis are categorized as disorganized, Mavromatis said. There is no clear motive or clear intent, she said.

Pyromaniacs act spontaneously from an irresistible impulse. It is a “pretty rare disorder,” she said.

She said arsonists are more apt to act alone, unless it’s done for profit or it’s gang-related. Boys also might act in concert in fire-setting, she said.

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Dian Williams, president of the Center for Arson Research in the Philadelphia area and a professor of criminal justice at West Chester University, offers a markedly different grouping of arsonists.

Williams, who stressed that she was not consulted professionally about Lewiston’s recent fires, said the sub-categories she refers to don’t include young children who play with matches and don’t intend any harm to come from their activities.

Revenge arsonists act out of imagined or perceived wrongs and they must retaliate for the harm done to them, Williams said. They are patient and don’t need the targets of their revenge to know they’ve been the object of a revenge arson. It’s only important that the arsonist knows the vengeful act has been carried out successfully.

Prosecution and punishment are unlikely to deter the revenge arsonist. They learn nothing from that process, which makes them “very dangerous” people, Williams said. Suffering from personality disorder, the revenge arsonist is shocked when told he has committed a crime.

Psychotic fire-setters suffer from major mental illnesses. They hear voices that control their behavior. Proper medication and talk therapy can be successful at lowering their risk of future fire-setting, she said.

Delinquent fire-starters are teens who engage in behaviors that include truancy, poor grades, drinking and drugs. They may set fires in groups. Arson is often a way of attempting to cover up an act of vandalism or some other crime they’ve committed. Delinquents usually don’t grow into adult arsonists, Williams said. They are the type of arsonists most likely to be caught.

Thrill-seekers derive extreme satisfaction from getting away with arson.

“Thrill-seekers are the kinds of guys who love to live on the edge of excitement all the time,” she said.

This type can include a fire official and the arson will be designed to stump investigators, proving the arsonist is the smarter one.

There is the disordered coping fire-setter, who starts as early as age 4, Williams said.

If that behavior isn’t detected early and intervention isn’t successful, that arsonist can grow up to be a violent sex offender, she said. For them, fire is described as being very soothing. When they set fires, it makes them feel calm, she said.

Feeling upset, agitated or unhappy will trigger an act of arson by that type of arsonist.

“They have no thought that it’s dangerous,” she said. “That doesn’t enter into their equation at all.”

The last sub-type, she said, is “very, very rare.” It’s called a “cluster” fire-setter.

This type will sets fires once a year around an anniversary date, she said. The rest of the year, they are unlikely to be involved in any criminal activity.

“But they may set a string of fires all around an anniversary date that is of extreme importance and significance to the fire-setter,” Williams said. “It usually has something to do with a loss,” such as divorce, death, separation or some other “very painful” experience, she said.

These arsonists are “almost never caught,” Williams said.

In fact, only around 12 percent of arsons nationally are ever successfully prosecuted, Williams said. Arsonists other than juveniles generally don’t confess to their crimes, she said. Often physical evidence is destroyed in the fire. And witness accounts are often unreliable, she said.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com