Arson investigators looking for people who set two cars on fire this morning on Fort Hill

By adamg on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 2:07pm

Residents of quiet Highland Avenue on Fort Hill got a rude awakening around 5 this morning when two cars erupted into flames, bringing firefighters, police and arson investigators. Residents say investigators quickly determined somebody had poured something on the two cars, then set them on fire. BostonPOPS took the photo.

Neighborhoods:

Roxbury

Topics:

Crime

Free tagging:

Arson

Ad:

Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Street?

By anon on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 2:44pm.

On what street did this happen?

Highland Avenue

By adamg on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 4:19pm.

I've added it to the post.

Just to clarify a little

By anon on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 4:53pm.

Just to clarify a little further - it's Highland Street (not Avenue).

To reclarify

By Fort hill resident on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 5:39pm.

It was definitely on Highland Avenue, not Highland Street. I live there.

Imagine looking out your gate at this

By adamg on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 4:28pm.

BostonPOPS forwarded a couple more photos. The first is the view out his gate at 5 a.m. The second is the remains of one of the cars.

Flaming car

Not much left of this car after arson

Really?

By Mary Smith on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 4:31pm.

Cars blow up in East Boston often (twice in the same spot on Border Street!) do they ever investigate that?

The street tree survives the arson, even if the vehicles did not

By Jonas Prang on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 5:10pm.

I just field-checked. The tree adjacent to one of the cars (seen in the first photo) survived unharmed.

This happened about a year ago on Centre Street at Gardner, opposite the apartments managed by Cruz Management. The BFD & BPD responding quickly, the torched van was toasted, the honey locust directly next to the vehicle is still thriving.

A Jonas Prang street tree post.

Neighbors talking about helping them out

By eeka on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 5:03pm.

Some of us on the hill were talking this morning about putting together a little something to help these two families out. If anyone from UHub is interested, e-mail me, and I'll add you to the e-mail discussion going around.

Insurance?

By Kaz on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 11:48pm.

Wouldn't insurance cover it?

Perhaps...

By mollynotloggedin on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 7:57am.

But it won't cover, for example, the rent check that was in the car.

Probably not

By eeka on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 9:05am.

They were too upset to get into much detail (duh) but from the way they were talking, I don't think so. Not many people have comprehensive on a 10-year-old van that they'd bought used with all the savings they had.

Also, it wouldn't likely cover contents (stroller, carseats, money order for this month's rent were among the lost items). Either way, there are still deductibles and things.

True

By Kaz on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 10:47am.

I hope you can help them out. I know you live nearby where that happened. I organized a fund for someone at another online community that I'm a part of when her apartment was damaged in that big fire in Southie a year or two ago. It's often surprising to see how many people are silent parts of the community on web forums like this but will come out of the woodwork in order to help out a fellow community member. If you put up a Paypal link for people to give donations, you might just get a few.