Nov 4, 2009 1:35 pm US/Pacific
11 Cars Torched Along Major East Bay Road
RICHMOND (BCN) ―
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A firefighter pours water on a burning car in Richmond early Wednesday.
CBS
Fire investigators in the East Bay are looking for a man who set 11 cars on fire Wednesday morning in Richmond and unincorporated Contra Costa County.
The cars were burned in six locations, between 2:45 a.m. and 5:40 a.m., Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said. The fires followed an eastbound pattern along San Pablo Dam Road, he said.
"We believe all these fires are related based on the fact that they happened in such a tight proximity and such a short time frame," he said.
A witness at one fire scene gave police a description of a man seen fleeing the area, Gagan said. Police are looking for the man, described as about 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black jacket with a hood.
Investigators from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District are working with police detectives and arson investigators from Richmond on the case.
In total, authorities say at least 11 cars were burned at three locations in Richmond and three in the El Sobrante area.
Richmond police said the first fires were reported at about 2:45 a.m., when firefighters responded to four burning cars at an apartment complex in the 3500 block of El Portal Drive, near San Pablo Dam Road
The cars were consumed by flames, which spread to nearby shrubbery, Gagan said.
At about 3:30 a.m., Contra Costa County firefighters responded to a vehicle set on fire in the 4100 block of San Pablo Dam Road. Another car fire was reported at about 4:20 a.m. in the 4400 block of San Pablo Dam Road, and another at about 4:45 a.m. in the 2400 block of May Road.
These three fires were set at apartment complexes, Contra Coast County sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
At about 5:05 a.m., Richmond firefighters were dispatched to yet another vehicle fire in the 2900 block of De Anza Drive, north of San Pablo Dam Road. At 5:38 a.m., two more cars were reported burning in the 3400 block of Morningside Drive, according to police.
No one was injured in any of the fires, but Gagan said investigators take the crimes very seriously.
"The fact that fire spread to nearby brush and that all these fires happened in residential neighborhoods when people were in their homes sleeping makes this extremely dangerous," he said.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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