SAN JOSE — Fire investigators and police detectives are probing whether some or all of two-dozen suspicious car fires reported since mid-December are the work of a serial arsonist, according to the San Jose Fire Department.
No one has been injured in the string of blazes, which began Dec. 18 and resumed early Tuesday with a flurry of 11 overnight car fires. The fires cover a 5 square-mile footprint spanning the SAP Center downtown and Willow Glen, and extending east to Almaden Expressway.
“Investigators are working to determine whether incidents occurring on different dates are connected. The public is encouraged to be vigilant and to immediately report any information, observations, or security camera footage that may be related to these incidents,” reads a Tuesday statement from the fire department.
The first fires were reported Dec. 18 between 5:30 a.m and 6:30 a.m., involving three vehicles parked in separate locations in Willow Glen, and one vehicle near Race Street and Auzerais Avenue.
More than a month would pass until the next cluster that surfaced last week. On Jan. 21, firefighters responded to seven vehicle fires in five different locations near West San Carlos Street and Highway 87, and the next day, another two vehicles were torched in the 300 block of San Jose Avenue in the city’s Alma neighborhood.
In the early morning hours Tuesday, between midnight and 1:15 a.m., firefighters were called to single downtown car fires at North Autumn Street and West Juilan Street, Woz Way and Almaden Boulevard, and another single car fire back in the Alma area at Floyd Street and Lick Avenue. Then half a mile away, near where Almaden Road and Almaden Expressway meet, six vehicles were set on fire on the Almaden Road side and two fires caught fire on the expressway side.
“This remains an active and ongoing investigation as fire and law enforcement officials work to apprehend those responsible,” the fire department said.
Information for investigators can be sent to the SJFD arson tip lin at 408-272-7766.
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