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HOUGHTON -- Nearly a dozen witnesses took the stand on Tuesday in the trial of 48-year-old Ronald Kemppainen.  He's charged with starting a fire that killed four people at the 116 Quincy Street apartment building in Hancock last July.

Exactly 10 months later, several people who were in the building when flames broke out told the court about suspicious statements made by the defendant before and after the blaze.

During cross-examination, the defense tried to discredit their timelines, particularly the few that placed Kemppainen alone in the laundry room where the fire started, only 10-20 minutes before smoke alarms went off.

While some witnesses said it was hard to remember the exact details of July 25, 2009, all stuck by their accounts of Kemppainen’s strange behavior.

"I asked what he was doing banging on the walls while a baby was trying to sleep, and he said the building was going to burn in three days," said Jason Gain.  "When I asked him why, he just said 'Fire.'"

"He was screaming 'I didn't do it' and 'I hope everybody's okay,’ and that was before anyone had accused him," said Tamara Racine.

The court saw more than 50 slides from the fire's aftermath as Michigan State Police Fire Marshal Jeff Hubbard explained how he determined the fire was arson.  Hubbard said there was no evidence of a mechanical or electrical cause, but the defense argued with the expert over the quality of a photo used to form his opinion and possibility of an unknown device.

"I looked at the different reasons, I considered smoking, the timeline and the two people in the room with the defendant before the fire was discovered," said Hubbard.

The trial is running a bit ahead of schedule, so the court took an early recess Tuesday afternoon to wait for an out-of-town witness to arrive.

The case continues at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning.