Car Fire: Highland Ave @ Conwell St.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

Fire: or rather cars on fire and exploding under the lofted concrete apartment building (270 Highland Ave). About 6 firetrucks, and all manners of Somerville/Medford Responding.

Woke up at a little before 2am to smashing of windows and general mayhem, and looked out the window and saw flames reflected in the house across the street. Heard more explosions, and called 911, ran outside, and saw the cars on fire in the parking lot under the building overhang. Still more explosions as the firefighters worked to put out the fires. It looked as if some part of the building lobby may have caught fire, or it could have just been flaming debris obscured by smoke.

There were reports of someone fleeing the scene, running down Highland towards Porter St., but other observers, noted he was just watching the fire, and bolted when the car started exploding.

The fire has been put out and people are loitering around in their pajamas... Nobody seemed to be hurt - The Cataldo Ambulance crew and gurney were unused at present observation. News cameras are present -- so we'll probably see this with more details on the TV tomorrow.

Comments

[cranbonite.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I heard rumors of the arson, which was made even richer when I went to my car and found it had been messed with. No damage, nothing stolen (there was nothing worth stealing) but stuff was thrown around, the seat moved, etc. Awesome. I brought it to the police to take the lighter that was left in there. Ugh. It's all pretty scary.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Was there any sign of a forced entry? I hope your building has security cameras.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

I don't know about cameras, but it did sound like mayhem before I saw flames. There has been a group of kids? tossing/kicking garbage cans over and such periodically on Highland Ave.

But the location choice : blocked by fence on 4 sides, covered, dark, quiet would lead me to suspect that they (if there is an arsonist) chose the location for that very reason.

[cranbonite.livejournal.com]

No, no sign of forced entry. I don't *think* I'd leave my car unlocked but it's possible I just pressed the button on the auto locker and didn't aim it right. Obviously I'll be more diligent about double-checking.

I'm 99% sure the building lacks security cameras. It's not the kind of neighborhood that seems to demand it, in my experience.