A man is in custody after an eight-hour crime spree that ended in diners being evacuated from a busy RSL. 

The 33-year-old has been charged with three counts of arson and two counts of criminal damage by fire, theft, threatening to destroy or damage property, reckless endangerment in relation to serious injury and reckless conduct endangering life.

Victorian Police say the spree began when the man emptied a jerry can outside a Malvern petrol station and threatened to set it alight just after 1.30pm on Sunday. 

Emergency services were later called to Box Hill RSL around 9pm, where 60 patrons were evacuated after the same man started a fire in a shed below the building. 

Police had been hunting the Surrey Hills man after a blaze at a Camberwell petrol station on March 24. 

He has been remanded to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

By Melissa Meehan in Melbourne