By Camas Frank ~
San Luis Obispo investigators are looking for a suspect in a series of arson fires starting Dec. 1 when six small grass fires were started in out-of-the-way areas but still accessible from streets.
“The arson is taking place in spots near the creek or railroad tracks,” said City Fire Marshall, Roger Maggio. “They’re not near the homeless encampments. We don’t believe they’re related to that kind of fire.”
He suspects a serial arsonist started a series of fires in San Luis Obispo that Tuesday evening. There is the possibility that the same person was responsible for three more blazes overnight a week later. That outbreak included a grove of Eucalyptus trees.
Approximately 40 suspicious fires have taken place inside the City limits in 2015, with at least one major spate in a single night last May, which also happened on a Tuesday night.
A series of blazes in 2014 also burned eight locations in a single night.
Unlike the “one off” type of event that the City had long tracked involving discarded furniture and other items after the end of the Cal Poly school year, these fires appear to have been deliberately set to burn vegetation.
“Our public outreach worked, when you talk about abandoned furniture fires and debris,” he said, “This is different.”
The fires are costing the City approximately $1,000 an hour to fight, but the real danger is in resources diverted away from downtown structure fires or medical calls, a situation that occurred Dec. 12 while investigators were on seen for one of the arsons.
“There seems to be an individual involved but making that determination for certain,” said Maggio. “There could be one lone wolf, two lone wolves or three all doing the same thing.”
Maggio did not elaborate on the implications of a “pack” of lone wolves, but the criminal profile for arsonists is typically that of an individual with a compulsion.
Maggio wasn’t sure what to make of the seemly scheduled nature of the destruction, but he is currently analyzing their data for patterns and common markers.
Anyone with information or who witnesses something suspicious should call the fire marshal’s direct line at 781-7386.