Residents in Hillcrest are concerned after a series of dumpster fires burned behind businesses and homes over the first weekend in October.
Four fires occurred between just before midnight Friday and around 2:30 am Saturday between 3rd and 4th Avenue, leaving residents no other choice but to consider the possibility of arson. Neighbors are both surprised and angry. They say they live in a tight knit community.
“It makes you kind of nervous because we feel like we’re in a very, very safe neighborhood and that people are setting fires around our homes is very unsettling,” neighbor Zachary Bryan told NBC7. “It’s really scary. The fact that they’re doing more than one fire at a time means they’re not afraid of getting caught so they’re definitely on the hunt, on them move.”
Many of the nearby homes and businesses are made of wood, an extra worry for residents already unnerved by what happened in their neighborhood Friday night.
The first fire occurred just before midnight on Friday in the 3500 block of 4th Avenue. Only eight minutes later another fire burned one block away in the 3600 block of 3rd Avenue. Another dumpster went up in flames around 2 am at an alleyway behind 3rd and Robinson and the latest happened only a half hour later in the 3700 block of 3rd Avenue.
Both SDPD and San Diego Fire Rescue’s Metro Arson Strike Team are investigating.
