Gilroy
– Someone intentionally lit four small fires in the Uvas
creekbed Saturday, an area that Gilroy Fire Department officials
say has been targeted by arsonists all summer long.
The blazes, which burned vegetation near Riverview Circle and
Village Place in South Gilroy about 8pm Saturday, bring to 13 the
number of suspicious fires since June near the dry and brush-filled
Uvas Creek.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Someone intentionally lit four small fires in the Uvas creekbed Saturday, an area that Gilroy Fire Department officials say has been targeted by arsonists all summer long.
The blazes, which burned vegetation near Riverview Circle and Village Place in South Gilroy about 8pm Saturday, bring to 13 the number of suspicious fires since June near the dry and brush-filled Uvas Creek.
“They were all at the same time,” said Ed Bozzo, Gilroy Fire Department division chief, of Saturday’s fires. “They were just in different areas down in the creekbed.”
They are believed to be related, given their close proximity: Three were within 50 feet of each other and the fourth was about 200 yards from those, Bozzo said.
All told, about a half-acre of vegetation burned before Gilroy fire crews left the scene about 11 that night.
The fires were near a new housing development off west Luchessa Avenue and Thomas Road, south of Gilroy High School’s stadium. No houses were in danger this weekend, Bozzo said, but the same neighborhood was threatened by the biggest fire of the summer there, on Aug. 6. That fire consumed three acres of vegetation on the creek’s south side and got as close as some backyard fences.
Bozzo said the suspicious fires remain under investigation, but it is unclear whether the latest incidents are related to the other fires that have occurred there.
“I can’t assume that,” Bozzo said.
Saturday’s fires – along with the nine others in Uvas Creek – have all been ruled as suspicious because there are no natural causes and they do not appear to be accidental. Natural causes would include lightning storms, which have not struck the area, and electrical lines, which are not in the area of the fires’ origins. Accidental causes could be campfires set by transients or discarded lit cigarette butts, but fire investigators have found no evidence of either.
What connects all the fires is that they have been set in the evening or at night, except the Aug. 6 fire that threatened several homes.
Bozzo said a fire investigation task force of GFD personnel and arson-trained Gilroy Police Department officers continues to try to catch the person or persons who are setting the fires. They have no suspects yet, he said.
As for alerting residents in the area of the fires, “at this time we’re working on a game plan,” Bozzo said.
Fawn Baerwaldt, who lives on Riverview Circle near Village Place, said she’s already vigilant about watching for smoke or suspicious activity near the creek.
“There’s kids that will park here and go down into the creek,” she said.
When she sees people wander off nearby trails and into dry areas of the creekbed, Baerwaldt said she has called Gilroy police.
“It is rather scary living here, and all the fuel across the street,” she said.
Baerwaldt and her family moved into their home about two weeks ago. It is bordered on two sides by the creek, she said. Since they moved in, she has seen three fires, and came home Saturday just as firefighters were extinguishing the latest four.
“You could see the smoke, but you could tell it was far enough down there that the houses were OK,” she said.
Firefighters put out another, unrelated suspicious fire that burned in a dumpster at 500 W. Tenth St. Saturday night about 10:30. That fire did not cause any other damage and there are no suspects.
All fired up
Recent suspicious fires in or near Uvas Creek, west of Luchessa Avenue and south of Gilroy High School:
– Sept. 18 at 8pm: Four fires burned half an acre
-Sept. 3 at 11:30pm: A fire burned roughly 5,400 square feet
– Aug. 6 at 3:33pm: A fire burned three acres
There have been 13 fires in the area since June.
