Police have charged a second man with setting fire to a Mt Pleasant home after the property was ripped apart by flames on Thursday and a sinister message was left behind.
The 43-year-old man was arrested at a residence in Willetton on Saturday October 24, days after the two-storey Ullapool Road property was set alight.
Detectives charged him with criminal damage by fire, and he was due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on Sunday, October 25.
Following a search of the Willetton residence, police stung him with further drug and unlawful weapon possession charges.
He is the second charged over the alleged arson after Matthew Manfredi-Tarpey, who was arrested just hours after the 3am fire on Wednesday.
WA's biggest courts and crime stories to your inbox
Sign-up to our weekly newsletter for free
Mr Manfredi-Tarpey was remanded in custody to appear via video link at Perth Magistrates Court on Monday for a bail application.
Arson investigators spent Wednesday probing the cause of the blaze, with threatening graffiti scrawled across the driveway adding to suspicions the fire was deliberate.
The property sustained major damage, with the roof collapsing and extensive fire damage visible from the street.
Red graffiti scrawled across the driveway read: “pay your debt dog.”
Neighbours described the blaze as frightening and confronting, Lina Davison said she was startled awake by the noise before looking outside and seeing the inferno.
“The first thing that I heard was the two bangs and then I had a look out the window and I saw fire coming from the back of the house on the top of the roof,” she said.
“It was quite frightening, it was shocking.”