Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A man is serving prison time in connection with an arson at a home in Green Oak Township.

31-year-old Mark Burgaj was sentenced to 5 to 20 years in prison after pleading no contest to a felony count of 2nd degree arson for an incident at a home on December 24th, 2023. He received credit for 564 days served.

Shortly after 2am, the Green Oak Township Police and Fire Departments started receiving calls via Central Dispatch for a report of a house fire visible from US-23 in the area of Nine Mile.

Responding units found a fully involved house fire on Fieldcrest, just north of Nine Mile. A second alarm was called due to the extent of the fire, which was eventually extinguished with the help of several mutual aid departments. There were no injuries and the occupant was not home at the time.

The house was essentially destroyed. In the 24-hours immediately prior to the fire, the fire department had already responded to over 40 calls due to the effects of the ice storm for downed wires and related incidents.

The fire was deemed suspicious in origin and police quickly identified a suspect, Burgaj, who was eventually arrested and jailed.

Court records show in a separate case tied to offenses on January 18th, 2023; Burgaj was charged with felony aggravated stalking and stalking. He pleaded no contest to stalking and was sentenced to 1 year in jail, with credit for 563 days of time served. The aggravated stalking count was dismissed.

Burgaj is incarcerated at the Charles E. Egeler correctional facility in Jackson County. Records show his earliest possible release date is May of 2028.