LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- Police said a man with a baseball bat stopped a suspected arsonist from lighting debris near a Snohomish County church that had been damaged last year in an arson fire.

Dan Morrison of Lynnwood had put out a fire that had been set in one of his cars in his front yard Friday morning, and a few minutes later he saw a man who he said looked suspicious.

“I saw some guy walking around by those bushes, and then he went down further and started walking down the street. He looked really suspicious, and I just hung back and watched him," Morrison told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News North Sound Bureau Chief Anna Velasquez.

Morrison said he watched as the man checked for unlocked doors on houses and cars and then tried to light a pile of debris at a church on fire.

“I was like, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Are you lighting fires?’ And he walked up to me and said, ‘No. No fires, no fires.’” And I said, ‘Yeah, there’s fires. You need to wait for the police. You’re the arsonist,’” said Morrison.

Morrison then held the man with his baseball bat until police arrived. He then showed a Lynnwood detective how far he chased the man down.

“I wasn't just going to get a description and give that to police and have them go on that,” said Morrison. “I was going to get this guy, and I was going to stop him. It’s life or death,” he said.

Police transported the 19-year-old man to the Snohomish County Jail.

Authorities said they will investigate to see if the man has any information on the church fire that was started last year.