Police are searching for a suspect in a series of what are believed to be deliberately set dumpster fires, most of them in D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood, that heavily damaged two businesses on Monday night.
The first fire was reported in the 4400 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW at around 6:30 p.m. Later, firefighters responded to another three fires outdoors on 40th Street, Yuma Street and Veazey Street.
D.C. Fire and EMS radio transmissions made it clear a pattern was noticed quickly, when a dispatcher said, “On your way up Wisconsin, if you can watch for additional trash can fires, communications is receiving multiple reports.”
Investigators are looking at as many as a half-dozen dumpster fires, most of them in Tenleytown and two in Georgetown.
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The first fire was set in a plastic trash dumpster behind the Solar Nail salon, and it spread to the building’s interior.
Everyone made it safely out of the salon and the Havana Smoke shop next door, but both businesses suffered heavy damage.
An employee of an adjacent business said she ran to alert a class of martial arts students upstairs.
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“They all came running down, put their shoes on and came running down,” she said. “If it had been later at night, after the shops had been closed and nobody had been here to catch it, like that’s really scary.”
Near 36th and Yuma streets NW, a Ring camera captured a pile of leaves that was set on fire around the same time in the same area. The man shown in the video is a neighborhood resident unconnected to the fires.
D.C. fire investigators are asking for the public’s help identifying a suspect. Anonymous tips can be submitted through the D.C Fire and EMS website.
