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Photo Vincent Guadazno
A house under construction at 98 Bayberry Ave. was one of the most recent targets of an arsonist or arsonists setting fires in Provincetown. |
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Photo Vincent Guadazno
The West End Racing Club, 83 Commercial St., suffered damage to the backside of its building as a result of a deliberately set fire. |
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Arson suspected in series of fires
Good Samaritans help keep blazes at bay
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — A series of suspicious fires in the past week are being blamed on arson, mobilizing an intensive investigation by the police and fire departments.
Acting Police Chief Warren Tobias said there have been seven fires deliberately set in town since Tuesday, Oct. 23. The first fires were lit in trash cans and dumpsters but the most recent fires were set outside of the West End Racing Club and inside a house under construction on Bayberry Avenue.
Damage at several of the fires was contained due to efforts of good Samaritans who reported the flames and tried to fight them until firefighters could arrive.
“The arsonist or arsonists started with garbage cans and graduated to dumpsters. Then we had one in an unoccupied house under construction,” Tobias said. “Fortunately, in most cases passersby noticed the flames and called police.”
The first incident that police suspect was set by the arsonist was a brush fire near the intersection of Route 6 and Ships Way on Tuesday, Oct. 23. Provincetown Fire Chief Mike Trovato said firefighters originally thought it was started by a cigarette thrown out of a car. However, two more deliberately set fires were reported that day, one in a dumpster at 81 Provincelands Road and one in a trashcan at 73 Commercial St., next to Capt. Jack’s Wharf.
The dumpster was filled with wooden shingles and Trovato said it was burning intensely when a man driving a camper stopped and used his fire extinguisher to contain the blaze until firefighters arrived.
“The way the wind was blowing that day, if he hadn’t knocked it down, it would have spread to the condos,” Trovato said, referring to the Village at the Moors condominium complex.
Two days later, on Oct. 25, another dumpster fire was reported at 1 Tremont St. The following day, the suspected arsonist began burning buildings. Tobias said two separate fires were set in a house under construction at 98 Bayberry Ave. sometime in the morning. Studs and floorboards were scorched and will have to be replaced, he said. And later that day, a couple walking on the beach noticed that the backside of the West End Racing Club at 83 Commercial St. was on fire. After calling police, the couple was joined by two other people on the beach, and they used a bucket to throw salt water and wet sand on the blaze, helping to put it out.
“My fear, of course, is eventually they’ll succeed,” Tobias said of the person or persons lighting the fires.
“If anything happens to one of us in an accident on the way to a fire, it goes from arson to murder really fast,” Trovato added.
The penalty for arson, a felony, is 20 years in jail for each incident.
Tobias wouldn’t give details of the ongoing investigation but said he has mobilized both police and fire department staff. State police cars have been observed patrolling the west end of town, where all the fires have been set.
“We’re taking all the steps we can,” he said.
Both Tobias and Trovato urged residents to take precautions, including leaving their outdoor lights on at night for visibility. Trovato also encouraged builders to haul dumpsters away as soon as they are full and keep the containers away from wooden buildings on the property.
“You can’t fool around with stuff like that in this town,” he said, referring to the prevalence in Provincetown of wooden structures so close to each other.
The town has a history of serial arsonists. Tobias said there were two previous repeat arson episodes, one in the late 1970s and another in the early 1980s. Two separate men, both town residents, were arrested in those incidents.
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Nov 1st, 2007