SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego Police Department has arrested an arson suspect after "numerous" trash cans, dumpsters and vehicles were set on fire in at least 10 spots in the mid-city area early Monday morning, according to arson investigators.
The San Diego Metro Arson Strike Team says it has confirmed at least 20 fires were started at 10 separate scenes, and it is actively looking for more crime scenes. The fires happened between 2:50 and 4 a.m., and they were all reported within a roughly 1-mile radius.
Arson investigators say three vehicles, one trailer and two houses suffered minor damage in addition to the trash cans and dumpsters.
A home off Highland Ave. is where the first call for a fire came in before the chain reaction of fires followed.
The San Diego Police and Fire departments got a call right before 3 a.m. regarding a fence covering on fire as two dogs were in a kennel on the other side of the fence.
The fire department responded in time, and crews on the scene told ABC 10News that the two dogs survived and would be OK. The owners at the Highland Ave. residence are also OK, but they were shaken up.
Police estimated about 36 trash cans were set on fire within the two-to-three-block area of the Highland Ave. home before MAST provided more information.
According to MAST, SDPD officers were flagged down in the area of Fairmount Ave. and Redwood St. at around 4 a.m. They found a woman in the 4400 block of Redwood St. who matched the description of the arson suspect, and they saw a rubbish fire right in front of her.
"Investigators are still working to determine if she was involved in any of the other fires," MAST says.
Juana M. Alford, 40, was identified as the woman who was arrested. She was booked into the Las Colinas Detention Facility.
SDPD said it called out around 30 officers to follow the fire department as firefighters went to put out each fire. Officers covered the area to slow the spread of the fires.
Sgt. Jadarric Davis said he's never seen this many dumpster fires set off all at once in his entire career.
"This is the most I've seen so far," Davis said. "I think they're pretty motivated, must be on a bike or a car driving around to set these fires. I have no clue why someone would set these many fires."
ABC 10News was on scene just before 4 a.m., and during that time, three more calls came in for reported dumpster fires.
The first call happened around 4:20 a.m. on Redding St.
There, ABC 10News saw at least one person being questioned by police.
Just before 6 a.m., two more fires were reported nearby the City Heights library.
It's unclear at this point if more people were involved in the fire spree.
If you have any information about this spree, reach out to MAST at 619-236-6815.
