The son of a former Pittsburgh city councilman was arrested yesterday for setting a fire that destroyed a Polish Hill apartment building, leaving 12 people homeless.

Duane Darkins Jr., 46, of Polish Hill, was charged with three counts of arson and five counts of reckless endangerment for starting a five-alarm fire Wednesday that took about two hours to control.

Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling the blaze, which police said Mr. Darkins set because he was "disgruntled" with his wife.

Investigators were aided by a security camera placed near the 3109 Brereton St. building by the Polish Hill Civic Association. The video shows Mr. Darkins, son of late city Councilman Duane A. Darkins who served from 1989 to 1994, entering the building and then leaving shortly before smoke started billowing from the windows, police said.

"That video was very important," said Detective Michael Burns of the Pittsburgh police arson investigation squad.

Investigators said the video was "helpful" in questioning Mr. Darkins, who was in Allegheny County Jail awaiting arraignment last night.

Police said Mr. Darkins ignited the blaze in the first-floor apartment of his 38-year-old wife. He was angry over his spouse's filing a protection-from-abuse order against him earlier this month, police said. The couple had been married for only three months. Police declined to disclose the wife's name, but records at the prothonotary's office identify Tracey Holiday, of 3109 Brereton St., as the PFA applicant against Mr. Darkins.

Neither she nor her three children -- ages 11, 14 and 18 -- were home at the time of the fire, police said. A man in a third-floor apartment escaped.

After setting the fire, police said, Mr. Darkins walked to a neighborhood bar on the same block. When firetrucks arrived, he walked to another bar, where police tracked him down about an hour after the fire started.

Mr. Darkins was immediately a suspect after a witness put him near the scene at the time of the fire, police said. He was arrested Wednesday night for a PFA violation, but without enough evidence to charge him with arson, he was released from jail the next day.

Then the surveillance video surfaced. The civic association recently received a grant for the equipment.

"It played a vital role in obtaining the arrest warrant," Detective Burns said.

Mr. Darkins was arrested last year on a litany of charges, including aggravated assault and resisting arrest, according to court documents.