Anchorage Daily News

A chaotic series of fires in Kodiak early Tuesday morning reached a high point at about 4:30 a.m. when firefighters discovered six flaming vehicles heating and burning the contents of a nearby shipping container, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Troopers say they are looking for one or more arsonists in the aftermath of the torchings that destroyed eight vehicles, charred a mobile home porch and caused up to $10,000 in damage to the contents of the container.

All four fires -- between Bells Flat and Monashka Bay -- were extinguished, though only after causing roughly $25,000 in damage. No one was injured.

"Right now, it's just looking like pure vandalism," said troopers Sgt. Maurice Hughes. "Because of the proximity, I would say we're probably looking at the same people for at least three of the incidents."

The series of fires touched off with a report at about 2:30 a.m. of an abandoned 1988 Ford truck left in a storage lot set on fire off South Sargent Creek Road. The vehicle was destroyed by the time the Women's Bay Volunteer Fire Department responded and put out what was left, fire chief Dale Rice said.

The culprits struck again just after 4 a.m., when someone ignited the porch to an unoccupied mobile home on Antone Way. That fire resulted in minor damage before the Bayside Volunteer Fire Department put it out, said fire chief Bob Himes.

As firefighters were wrapping things up there, they were dispatched to a report of multiple car fires about a mile down the road, Himes said. On the way, firefighters saw another vehicle burning, he said. The 1989 Toyota truck was destroyed in a cleared lot near North Star Elementary School. The school was not damaged.

But the blaze involving multiple vehicles was the most severe. Bayside firefighters found six burning vehicles in a lot on Balika Lane. Heat from the burning vehicles was so intense it ignited flammable construction materials -- like wooden doors and windows -- inside a 40-foot shipping container parked nearby, Himes said.

Though unusual, this isn't the first time a string of arsons lit up Kodiak overnight.

"Actually, this is the second time this has happened," Himes said. "About a month ago, we had basically the same incident but it involved Dumpsters."

In that rash of fires, a handful of the trash bins "mysteriously" caught on fire in the same area of Tuesday's blazes, Himes said. The suspects are still being sought in that case, but there is no indication the same person or group is responsible for all the recent fires, Hughes said.

The arsonist or arsonists are being sought on charges of criminally negligent burning and arson. Anyone with information about the fires is asked to call troopers in Kodiak at 907-486-4121.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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