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Claire Hart’s home in Provo was burned on Thanksgiving in 2022 with almost everything inside destroyed by fire, smoke or water. Her home was one of 11 involved in the fires believed to be set by Calliope Mlynar who was sentenced to prison for five years to life for aggravated arson on Thursday, October 5, 2023.

Courtesy Claire Hart

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The Molinaro family’s home was burned completely and could not be salvaged after it was set on fire Dec. 20, 2022. Their car was also torched in the blaze. Calliope Mlynar acknowledged responsibility for this fire and six others. He was sentenced to prison for five years to life for aggravated arson on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023.

Courtesy Elizabeth Molinaro

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Lynn Schofield, Provo fire marshal, speaks at a press conference detailing the charges against Calliope Mlynar on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, in Provo. Later that morning, Mlynar was sentenced to five years to life in prison for a series of intentional fires set in late 2022.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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The Molinaro family, from left, Noah, Elizabeth, Jonah and Elijah, pose in front of the 4th District Court building in Provo on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. The family's house was burned to the ground on Dec. 20, 2022, by Calliope Mlynar, who was sentenced to five years to life in prison for the crime.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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The Molinaro family’s home was burned completely and could not be salvaged after it was set on fire Dec. 20, 2022. Calliope Mlynar acknowledged responsibility for this fire and six others. He was sentenced to prison for five years to life for aggravated arson on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023.

Courtesy Elizabeth Molinaro

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Claire Hart’s home in Provo was burned on Thanksgiving in 2022 with almost everything inside destroyed by fire, smoke or water. Her home was one of 11 involved in the fires believed to be set by Calliope Mlynar who was sentenced to prison for five years to life for aggravated arson on Thursday, October 5, 2023.

Courtesy Claire Hart

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A timeline of the fires set by Calliope Mlynar in 2022 are display at a press conference before Mlynar's sentencing hearing on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, in Provo.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Late last summer and fall, from August to Christmas Day 2022, 11 fires in the middle of the night forced Provo residents out of their homes or apartments, all occurring within a few blocks of each other. It was not long after the fires continued that the Provo Fire Department and law enforcement began connecting the dots and discovered a serial arsonist was intentionally setting fire to occupied residences at night.

Some houses suffered extensive damage while others burned to the ground and could not be salvaged. Most physical possessions were completely lost by the fire, smoke or water damage. Only one residence was not occupied as the people who lived there had gone home to their family for Christmas.

After the fire on Christmas, investigators laid out all of the resources possible to find the arsonist, and within 48 hours Calliope Mlynar was in jail. Mlynar, 20, who uses he/him pronouns, appeared in 4th District Court on Thursday to be sentenced after pleading guilty to a first-degree felony count of arson.

While 11 fires are believed to have been started by Mlynar, only seven were addressed in his plea deal. The other four fires are still under investigation. The Christmas fire broke out at 4:53 a.m. inside the Centennial Apartments laundry room, located 380 N. 1020 East.

Mlynar reportedly was identified as a suspect after entering the building via his key card, which was linked to his name. Two other fires occurred in the apartment building on Nov. 24 and Dec. 5, 2022. For the other six fires included in the charges, Mlynar did not plead guilty but “acknowledged some responsibility for the purposes of restitution,” said Lynn Schofield, Provo fire marshal.

On Thursday afternoon, Mlynar was given a maximum sentence of five years to life and a $10,000 fine. He also was given the maximum sentence of zero to five years and a $5,000 fine for assault by a prisoner during his time in jail. Judge Robert C. Lunnen ordered these sentences to be served consecutively in the state prison. The extent to how much of this sentence is served will now be a decision for the Board of Pardons. There will be no credit awarded to Mlynar for time served.

Mlynar also was ordered to pay full restitution of $55,521.41 for the fires. Lunnen gave an order of no contact between the defendant and the victims.

There is no known motive as Mlynar has chosen to not speak with law enforcement officers. None of the victims had ever seen or met Mlynar. There were no similarities between the victims other than their living vicinity and the way the fires at their residences were set.

Before the sentence was given, three victims shared statements about their experiences waking to discover flames engulfing their homes, and the physical and emotional damage they incurred.

While physical possessions were lost, each of the victims agreed the biggest loss was that their confidence in the safety of their home and ability to sleep at night had been taken away.

No one was hurt in the fires except for minor burn injuries on a victim’s hands when they grabbed the doorknob to escape in one of the fires.  Schofield said “The grace of God” is the only thing he could think of to explain how no one was killed in the fires. He said the department will do everything in its power to ensure the arsonist stays in prison for as long as possible.

Victims of the fires

Claire Hart was sleeping next to her 5-year-old daughter when she woke up at 3:30 Thanksgiving morning to “strange but persistent sounds outside my window,” she said as she began her statement to the judge. “When I woke up, I saw smoke outside my bedroom window. And when I went to investigate, I went to the front door and I saw the flames burning through the roof of my home.”

Hart told the Daily Herald, “I will never forget that night. Never, for as long as I live. I’ll never forget just calling 911, wrapping my precious, sleeping girl up in a blanket and just running away from the fire and the smoke with her.”

She said she has received immense support from the first responders that night and throughout the entire time leading up to Mlynar being sentenced. That night, a police officer let them sit in the back of a police car, which she said her daughter thought was “pretty funny.” They sat in the car and watched their house burn.

They have been displaced since that night, living in rental properties while life goes on and her payment on her burned-down home still has to be paid. Hart explained life didn’t stop for her because of the tragedy. She still had to work to take care of her daughter. “Within moments, the little life that has taken every ounce of strength in me to build as a single mother for years was taken away from me and I watched it be destroyed before my eyes,” she said during the hearing.

She has slowly been able to rebuild her home and is hoping to move back into it soon.

Luke Gleave and his wife, Emma, had been married for six months when they woke up in the early hours of Dec. 20 to popping and screaming noises and light pouring through their window. They looked outside to see the fence between their home and that of their neighbors, the Molinaros, engulfed in flames. Their garage and all contents inside were destroyed by the fire.

“The greatest loss we’ve experienced because of this attack was losing our sense of security. How do you go to bed after that?” Gleave told the judge during the hearing. “It doesn’t matter how many times you check the locks on the doors. It doesn’t matter that you set clothes and shoes next to the bed in case of another emergency. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell Emma that everything will be OK. I didn’t know if that was true because our new reality was that anything could happen.”

Elizabeth Molinaro woke up that night to what sounded like snow shovels banging on the side of her car. She walked out to the living room where her husband had fallen asleep watching Argentina win the World Cup, the country he immigrated from, to ask him to check outside. When he opened the door, he said, “The house is on fire. I smell smoke.”

As she looked outside, she saw fire flash across the back of her car. In the time it took to tell her three children to grab shoes, socks and a coat and run out the door, the home was engulfed in flames. The flames were over her head as she stepped out the door, being the last to exit the home.

The Molinaros were one of many families to be displaced as their home that they had lived in for 20 years was destroyed completely. Each of her sons, Noah, Jonah and Elijah, shared their statements at the hearing of how the tragedy affected them. Her children were made fun of at school, being called names such as soot face and ash face. Her oldest son, Noah, has autism, and this drastic change for him in a matter of minutes was difficult to handle.

“As a young, autistic kid, routine was everything for me,” Noah Molinaro said. When his mom told him to go to bed the night of the fire, “I thought everything would be safe. And then at 3 a.m. in the morning on Dec. 20, 2022, my life took a turn. I woke up to screams and people were afraid, scared, and all I was asking was what was going on.”

Despite the tragedy, Jonah Molinaro, said it brought him and Noah closer together. They fought less and spent more time together. Elizabeth Molinaro told the Daily Herald she has seen her boys reach out and support others in the same way they were supported after the fire. “I can’t have a better outcome from the experience than that they have grown through awareness and experience and a desire to do good in the world. That has been the outcome that we couldn’t foresee in the tragedy,” she said.

No remorse for his actions

Schofield recalled interviewing a member of his crew who had gone to the Molinaro house to retrieve some things on the day of the fire. “As we talked about it, he described in detail the children’s bedroom in the Molinaro home. He talked about the blankets on the bed, and he reached up and grabbed my arm and he said, ‘Chief, you’ve got to make this stop. Somebody’s gonna die. You’ve got to stop this,'” Schofield said. “(That is) the first time that has happened in my career in 35 years in the fire service. I’ve never had a firefighter who didn’t like fighting fire.”

These fires placed the entire community into a state of constant worrying that they would be next, Schofield said. When there was a small structure fire in the area a few weeks ago, even though Mlynar was in jail, Schofield’s phone was filled with messages and phone calls asking if the arsonist had been released and if the public needed to worry.

After hearing the victims’ statements and hearing how the fires caused tragedy in their lives, Mlynar addressed the court. “As far as the fire that I’m charged with, I was not trying to kill anybody and I believe that and nobody’s even hurt in the slightest physically from that incident,” he said.

He expressed his belief that prison does not treat underlying causes for people’s behavior and creates a cycle of going back to prison instead of keeping people out of trouble. “I’ve been in and out of the psych ward since I was 10 years old. I have bipolar disorder, I am unmedicated, or improperly medicated, when the first case occurred last December,” he said.

A pre-sentence report referenced during the hearing reportedly noted specific risks and factors of a diagnosis of psychopathy in the defendant.

“I believe based on all the facts and circumstances (that) Mr. Mlynar intended to kill people,” Lunnen said before announcing the sentence. “I don’t know if it was part of the anger. I have seen no remorse here in the courtroom today. … It didn’t matter to you if they died or lived in the fire or you destroyed their homes. I don’t believe you have any empathy for any of these people and you haven’t demonstrated any to the court.”

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