BATON ROUGE - Police say they arrested a man accused of burning down a vacant home and causing damage to a nearby commercial property as he was trying to cook a steak over the weekend.

65-year-old Charles Oby was booked on charges of simple arson and criminal trespass following his arrest Sunday.

Police said Oby was on the porch of an unoccupied house near the intersection of Perkins Road and Essen Lane at around 5 p.m. Sunday when an eyewitness said they saw him tossing gasoline onto a lit barbecue pit. The witness said they asked the man to stop, but he continued and eventually caught the house on fire.

The fire spread to a nearby Burger King, causing moderate damage from the heat, according to the Baton Rouge Fire Department. The vacant home was totally destroyed by the blaze, which caused an estimated $100,000 worth of damage.

The owner said he asked Oby to leave his property several times.