A search for a woman, who may be connected to several overnight fires, is underway in Reseda where authorities have received reports of at least 14 suspicious fires within 72 hours.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said it received the most recent 911 calls about rubbish fires after midnight Tuesday. A total of six fires broke out within two hours in the Reseda area.
“We combed the area here, but we can’t find the person who was identified at one of the areas to interview,” Thomas Gikas, a battalion chief with the LAFD said.
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In one of the incidents, the back of a truck was set on fire around Yolanda Avenue and Vanowen.
Residents in the area were seen rushing out to put out the flames with a garden hose. Fire crews quickly put out the flames, but the vehicle appeared to be heavily damaged, with ashes and debris falling out of the bed of the pickup truck.
Authorities are zeroing in on one woman who was spotted at all the fires Tuesday morning as well as other fire scenes on the two previous nights.
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“Some of the [LAFD] members working feel that they were connected to the same person,” Gikas explained.
The LAFD has a picture of this possible arson suspect, but the agency has yet to publicly release the image in search for the woman. Witnesses said they spotted the woman on a bicycle.
Arson investigators as well as LAPD officers are involved in the investigation. Authorities said Tuesday morning that 14 suspicious fires were reported in the Reseda area in the past 72 hours.
It was not immediately clear whether all were connected.
No one is injured in the fires.
