The Berkeley Police Department, UCPD and Berkeley Fire Department have responded to a string of at least 10 different fires since Friday in the area south of the UC Berkeley campus, including one adjacent to a student residence hall that witnesses say sent flames at least one story high. According to police, the Office of the State Fire Marshal and arson investigators are examining the fires that damaged three automobiles, a scooter, one Port-a-Potty, a light pole, several trash cans and one wooden bench.
According to surveillance video shown on KTVU news from the latest fire – a trashcan fire in front of Sam’s Market on Telegraph Avenue around 3:50 a.m. Tuesday morning – an unknown person approaches a trash can in front of the market around five minutes before the fire, then two more unknown individuals approach the trash can, which ignites minutes later.
A few hours before that fire, at around 11:45 p.m. Monday night residents of a house at 2316 Bowditch Street said they saw flames rising from the north corner of a parking lot behind their home. They ran outside to extinguish the flames and found two trashcans and a scooter on fire. Jimmy Henson, a resident of the home and owner of the scooter, said he and his housemates extinguished the flames and found two propane tanks they use for grilling placed near the flaming trashcans. He said they removed one but before they could remove the other the fire reignited, at which point Berkeley police officers and firefighters arrived on scene.
Henson, a UC Berkeley student, said the trashcans and propane tanks had been dragged from the opposite side of the parking lot and placed near the scooter, similar to the other fires.
“Thank god (the propane tanks) didn’t explode,” he said, surveying the damage Monday night. “That whole house could have gone up.”
After a fire early Monday evening, also involving a trashcan, Acting Lt. Kevin White said that the fire department expected the fires to continue throughout the evening. He added Berkeley police are assisting the fire department in the arson investigation.
Fires Begin Friday, Continue into Saturday
According to Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, the department does not have any description of a suspect or suspects, though two of the fires share similar styles.
“It is too early to determine whether this is a single suspect, multiple suspects or several different suspects,” Kusmiss said in an e-mail Monday afternoon. “We need the community’s support with these investigations.”
The string of incidents began Friday when UCPD received a report of multiple trash cans on fire along Telegraph Avenue, including trash cans on fire in front of Subway and others toward Channing Way at around 1:30 a.m., according to Sabina Imrie, assistant fire chief for special operations at the department. UCPD assisted Berkeley firefighters and police with a larger trash can fire at the intersection of Bancroft Way and Telegraph at 11:30 p.m Friday as well.
Then Saturday at around 3:28 a.m., Berkeley police received a report of another trash can on fire next to a parked 1995 Toyota Camry on the 2600 block of Parker Street. According to Kusmiss, the fire damaged a nearby light pole, broke the car’s rear windshield and caused the right rear tire of the car to explode.
Port-a-Potty, Car, UC Van Damaged in Three Fires Sunday
At around 3:21 a.m. Sunday, a Berkeley police officer was patrolling Southside when he saw a Port-a-Potty on fire in front of a building at 2398 Bancroft Way, according to Kusmiss. The officer extinguished the fire with a nearby hose, though the fire melted the entire toilet and charred the exterior stucco wall of the building. A little over an hour later at 4:56 a.m., Kusmiss said Berkeley police and firefighters responded to another lit trash can that had been pushed up against a gray 2005 Nissan in front of a building at 2347 Prospect St. The car sustained major fire damage to its passenger side, roof, hood, front bumper, headlight and interior.
Later, Berkeley firefighters responded to a call to Ehrman Hall around 11:42 p.m. and quickly extinguished a pile of flaming wood debris located between a dumpster, a parked van and a retaining wall on the west side of the building near Dwight Way.
After the flame set off the dormitory’s fire alarm, residents of Ehrman filed out of the building, which experienced a fire in its trash chute that sent two students to the hospital late last month. Shortly after midnight, the residents were allowed back in the building.
Berkeley resident Chuck Pryors was driving east on Dwight when he saw flames a story high emanating from behind the dumpster, located in the dorm’s driveway. Pryors stopped his car and saw a Berkeley police officer running toward the flames with a fire extinguisher, though Pryor said the officer stopped before reaching the flames.
“He kind of quickly realized he wasn’t equipped to deal with the situation,” Pryors said while standing across the street from the fire’s location.
Plumes of smoke from the fire rose above the residence hall and were visible from across the housing complex where Sebastian Fritz, an international student and volunteer firefighter from Austria is staying for the summer. The economics student from the Vienna University of Economics and Business said he saw the smoke from the seventh floor of Davidson Hall and ran down to help put out the flames, though he said firefighters were already on scene when he arrived.
Fritz described it as a “small little fire, not a spectacular one.”
Three More Fires Monday
According to the UCPD crime alert, about 20 minutes later at 12:04 a.m., UCPD and Berkeley police officers responded to reports of another fire at the Tang Center courtyard to find a wooden bench on fire, which they extinguished.
At around 7:30 p.m. Monday evening, Berkeley firefighters responded to calls of a burning trashcan in an alley between two apartment buildings at 2713 Dwight Way between Etna Street and Piedmont Avenue. Area residents reported hearing a loud popping noise from within the trash can according to Acting Lt. Kevin White.
The parking lot fire at 2316 Bowditch occurred later that night.
Emma Anderson of The Daily Californian contributed to this report.