A 45-year-old Bellingham man is accused of lighting a fire inside the Oak Harbor home of his estranged wife and children June 14, court documents state.

Prosecutors charged Fred Redling in Island County Superior Court June 17 with first-degree arson, malicious mischief in the first degree and harassment (threats to kill). All the charges are domestic-violence related.

If convicted of the charges, Redling could face more than three years in prison under the standard sentencing range.

According to the report by Oak Harbor Police Officer Jim Hoagland, Redling had been staying at his family’s Oak Harbor home. The children were gone over the weekend, so the couple went out to a bar. Later, the wife left the bar with friends because Redling was talking to a woman, the report states.

Redling went looking for his wife and told a friend that he wanted to kill her and then himself, Hoagland wrote.

Redling went to the house, made a pile with his wife’s clothes and some paperwork, poured gasoline on it and lit it on fire, the report states. Redling told the officer that he was shocked when he threw a match on the pile and it “flamed up so fast,” the report states. He put the fire out and took down smoke alarms, which were going off.

Hoagland wrote that Redling then trashed the house, breaking a TV, chair, flower pots, and a shower door. He left a hammer in a wall, threw a printer through a sliding glass door and broke appliances in the kitchen, the report indicates. Redling cut his thumb and got blood all over the house.

Redling admitted that he started the fire and broke items in the house, Hoagland wrote. He said he was “ashamed and scared” and asked the officer to arrest him, which Hoagland did, court documents state.

Contact Whidbey News Times Assistant editor Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or 360.675.6611 ext. 5056.

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