Berkeley police have arrested a 48-year-old man on suspicion of setting the fire that shuttered the city's animal shelter and scattered its animals to foster homes — and they are now investigating whether the same person returned days later to flood the building.

The arrest closes one chapter in an unusually targeted run of damage against Berkeley Animal Care Services, the city-run shelter near Aquatic Park. But it opens another: police say a vandal flooded the same facility overnight Wednesday into Thursday, and they are weighing whether the man already in custody for the June 6 arson was also responsible. No animals or people were hurt in either incident, but the shelter expects to stay closed for weeks or months — a stretch that leaves Berkeley without its public animal intake during the warm months when strays peak.

Berkeley police announced Thursday that they had arrested a 48-year-old man on suspicion of arson and animal cruelty in the fire that forced Berkeley Animal Care Services to close and relocate every animal in its care.

The fire was first reported around 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 6, igniting in a pile of donated pet supplies stored under a stairway in the shelter's lobby. NBC Bay Area, citing the police department, reported that detectives in the property crimes unit reviewed surveillance footage and "determined the suspect used a rock to break the window and ignited the fire using an 'improvised incendiary device.'" Berkeleyside, which first reported the arrest, described the same sequence from a police statement. Investigators say they identified the man after he returned to the area near the shelter and was again captured on camera; officers found him downtown Thursday morning and took him into custody.

The damage was contained but punishing for a small public shelter. Dog beds, blankets, food bags and leashes were destroyed or left unusable by smoke, and an inspection found a downed sprinkler system that could have endangered animals had they remained. By Monday, all of the shelter's animals had been moved into foster homes or handed off to other shelters. There were no injuries to people or animals.

That the fire was deliberate is not in dispute among the agencies involved. KTVU, citing a Berkeley Fire Department news release, reported on June 10 — before the arrest — that police already believed the blaze "was intentionally lit" after investigators flagged a broken window near the point of origin. The department asked anyone with information to contact its Property Crimes Unit.

The second incident is murkier. Police say that sometime between 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and 8:20 a.m. Thursday, someone flooded the shuttered building — most likely, a department spokesperson said, by jumping a nearby fence and opening an exterior faucet so that water "flowed into the interior of the building." Whether the man arrested in the arson was also behind the flooding is something investigators say they are still working to determine.

The man is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin with bail set at $670,000, and was scheduled for arraignment Monday, according to jail records reviewed by Berkeleyside. The Dissent could not independently confirm the bail figure or arraignment date through a second outlet, and is attributing both to that reporting. The Alameda County District Attorney's Office had not formally filed charges as of Thursday, according to court records cited by Berkeleyside — a distinction worth keeping in view, since an arrest on suspicion of a crime is not the same as a charging decision by prosecutors. The Dissent is not naming the suspect while charges remain unfiled, though broadcast outlets have published his name.

For now, the practical fallout lands on the animals and the volunteers. The shelter told supporters Monday it would accept clean, unused towels and soft blankets left outside its front door, and pointed donors to the nonprofit Friends of Berkeley Animal Care Services. How long the facility stays dark — and whether the flooding turns out to be a coda to the arson or a separate threat — are the open questions Berkeley police now have to answer.