A 39-year-old homeless man is facing arson and burglary charges after police say he set fire to a wicker basket at the entrance of Arch Creek Bible Chapel in North Miami Beach. Joseph Drew was arrested on suspicion of arson at the church, located at 13740 NE 20 Place, and no one was injured in the fire, according to police.
Court records show Drew faced charges of second-degree arson and burglary of an occupied structure stemming from the August 10 incident, as reported by WPLG Local 10 News. Police say Drew placed a wicker basket on top of a church sign and set it alight at the entryway of Arch Creek Bible Chapel, and he admitted he was recorded on surveillance video during the incident. Under Florida Statute § 806.01, second-degree arson is classified as a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, 15 years of probation, and a fine of up to $10,000, according to Online Sunshine, Florida's official statutes portal.
The burglary charge carries similarly serious exposure. Under Florida Statute § 810.02, burglary of an occupied structure is a second-degree felony carrying a potential sentence of up to 15 years in prison, 15 years of probation, and up to a $10,000 fine, per Richard Hornsby Law. Florida law reserves the harsher first-degree arson charge, which can bring up to 30 years in prison, for fires that damage a church during normal hours of occupancy when people are present — a distinction that appears to explain why Drew was charged with the second-degree offense rather than the more severe one.
Arrest Came Five Days After the Fire
Drew was arrested shortly before 3:20 p.m. on August 15 at a Valero gas station at 1900 NE 163 St. in North Miami Beach, according to police, five days after the fire was set at the chapel. He was booked at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center shortly after 9:30 p.m. that same night, according to inmate records. The facility, operated by the Miami-Dade County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, is a 1,300-bed direct-supervision intake and detention center that serves as the main booking hub for pretrial detainees in Miami-Dade County, per Miami-Dade County.
Records show Drew also faced two additional charges — possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia — in connection with his arrest, bringing his total to four charges across two new cases in Miami-Dade County. Drew told a detective he must have blacked out because he was drinking heavily and addicted to Adderall, a prescription stimulant, according to police.
What Alcohol and Adderall Do to the Brain
Medical literature published by the Addiction Center notes that combining prescription stimulants like Adderall with alcohol masks depressant intoxication levels, impairs cognitive judgment, and significantly heightens the risk of unpredictable behavior and blackouts. That research offers context for Drew's account of the incident, though it does not resolve what actually happened at the church that night.
Arch Creek Bible Chapel sits in the Arch Creek area of North Miami Beach, a neighborhood named for a historical natural limestone bridge near Arch Creek Park, an 8-acre site added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, according to background compiled from Wikipedia. The area was originally inhabited by the Tequesta people and later served as a pioneer settlement route.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Church Fires
The North Miami Beach case fits into a wider pattern of hostility toward houses of worship across Florida and the nation. A report published in August 2025 by the Family Research Council documented 415 hostile acts against U.S. Christian churches in 2024, including 55 instances of arson, with Florida tying for the third-highest state total nationwide at 25 incidents, according to Focus on the Family. Nationally, fire departments respond to an estimated average of 1,300 house-of-worship fires annually, causing $74.6 million in property loss, with about 15 percent determined to be intentionally set, according to U.S. Fire Administration data covering 2020 through 2022.
South Florida has seen similar incidents before. In April 2016, an arsonist set fire to Refuge Life Community Church in Oakland Park and left threatening graffiti on the sanctuary walls, an incident that coincided with a series of house-of-worship burglaries across Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to WSVN 7News.
It remains unclear whether federal authorities will examine the North Miami Beach fire under the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, which allows federal prosecution of attacks on religious property that affect interstate commerce or are motivated by religious animosity. It's also unknown whether bail has been set in Drew's case or what repairs, if any, the chapel needs following the fire. WPLG Local 10 News reported the arrest, with contributions from assignment editor Mercedes Cevallos and reporting by digital journalist Andrea Torres.
