At least a half-dozen cars have been set on fire across Anchorage in the last 10 days, and police are investigating a series of vehicle arsons going back to May.
Lt. Paul Honeman, a police spokesman, said it's not clear if all the fires are connected. The number is "in the tens of cars," he said Tuesday.
Many -- but not all -- of the torched vehicles were parked with doors unlocked or windows rolled down, easy access for someone to douse the insides of the vehicles with an accelerant of some kind.
Crystal Chilton left the window of her Chevy Corsica down Friday night because she'd cleaned off her seats and wanted to let them dry. About 2 a.m. Saturday, firefighters knocked on her door in Jewel Lake -- all that was left of the Corsica's interior was the wire frame of the seats.
She's on foot now.
"My mother came and gave us a ride to go grocery shopping," said Chilton, 33.
A day earlier, Laura Smith heard a car speeding away just before she went to bed in her Midtown home about 3 a.m. Friday. When she noticed lights flickering through her windows, she got up and looked out to see her 1997 Astro van in flames.
"You could hear a roaring fire," Smith said, and an explosion rocketed a piece of the vehicle into the wall of the house.
Jesse and Sabra Marchand lost their Hyundai to arsonists in the early morning of July 8. They, too, had left down the windows of their car, parked in Airport Heights. At about 2 a.m., Jesse, home alone while Sabra visited family, was awakened by loud sounds outside.
"I was sleeping and I head a bang, like a backfire or a tire pop," Jesse said. "I woke up and looked out my bedroom window and the car was on fire."
He called 911. It turned out police were responding to another car fire a couple of blocks away.
From the time he awoke until the fire crew rolled away was less than half an hour, Marchand said, but he spent the rest of the night glued to his window -- shaken by what happened and wondering what might happen next.
The couple has only liability insurance and their homeowner's insurance won't cover the car since it was parked on the street. They're planning on paying to have it towed away soon.
"It's out-of-pocket expense, as far as we're concerned, for someone's amusement," Sabra said.
The attacks on vehicles parked in neighborhoods have occurred late at night and early in the morning. Police said there wasn't a type of vehicle or a particular part of town that appeared to be targeted.
Police aren't saying much about their investigation.
"We're aware of it, we're connecting some dots, and we're working on it," Honeman said.
Police advised car owners to lock their doors, roll up windows and be alert to suspicious cars in their neighborhoods.
Find Leslie Anne Jones online at adn.com/contact/ljones or call 257-4200.
