A report that a city man was attempting to burn down an apartment building on the 2700 block of Walnut Avenue drew a large police presence early Thursday morning and resulted in the arrest of 41-year-old Joshua Wade Winslow, according to court documents.

Altoona police responded to 27th Street and Walnut Avenue about 12:36 a.m. to find Winslow walking out of the apartment building. He was intercepted and detained while police entered the building to investigate, court documents state.

Upon entering the building, police observed and smelled a good deal of smoke in the public access hallway. In Apartment 2, where the incident occurred, police found burned debris on the floor of the living room. The debris was still smoking, police reported.

Court documents state police had recently left the residence after a verbal domestic incident between Winslow and another person, who called about the fire.

The caller said shortly after police left the first time, Winslow began to verbally harass her and then said, “I don’t give a f***, I’m gonna burn this house down.” She told police Winslow then grabbed a roll of paper towels, made the comment “I don’t care, you all stay here and burn,” unraveled the towels and balled them up. Winslow then used a cigarette lighter to light the towels on fire, she said, adding he threw the towels on the floor and dumped “Pine Glo” and “Mean Green” on the floor in an effort to use them as a “chemical accelerant.”

Winslow then watched the fire burn, she told police. The caller stomped out the fire and then Winslow dumped water on it to put it out. He continued to call her names and eventually fled the home when police arrived.

In a police interview, Winslow said he only “set two napkins on fire.” However, police said that was inconsistent with the amount of fire debris found in the apartment.

Winslow was arraigned Thursday morning before Magisterial District Judge Paula M. Aigner on felony charges of arson and risking a catastrophe, along with two misdemeanor charges of recklessly endangering another person, a misdemeanor charge of terroristic threats and a summary charge of public drunkenness.

Unable to post $150,000 cash bail, he was remanded to the Blair County Prison. His preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 15 before Magisterial District Judge Benjamin F. Jones.