If you have a garage, now might be a good time to throw away all that crap you will never, ever need, and park your car in there.
A person, or people, tried to set at least 10 cars on fire early this morning, with the silver lining being that four of those reported fires didn't catch on.
Chandler police Sergeant Joe Favazzo tells New Times that 9-1-1 calls started coming in around 2 a.m., as four vehicles were set on fire across the city.
It appears that the arsonist(s) tried to light up four more, but failed.
The first fire was set near Chandler Heights Boulevard and Lindsay Road, and the next call came in about 15 minutes later, in a neighborhood off Alma School Road, between Warner and Elliot Roads.
Another 15 minutes later, yet another flaming-car call came in, and that one was north of Elliot Road. Officers responding to that call found the fourth car on fire a few blocks away.
Favazzo says there's nothing specific that ties the fires together, so police aren't sure if it was just one person or if multiple people were setting the fires. He adds that it's possible other failed fires haven't been reported.
If there was only one person setting the fires, then they spanned pretty much the entire length of Chandler in about 40 minutes, while setting fires to eight cars along the way.
"If it was one person, they were moving pretty fast," Favazzo says.
Still, it appears that the four cars that were "fully engulfed" in
flames when police showed up are totally ruined, Favazzo says.
Mesa police just recently sent out a statement that two cars were also set on fire in Mesa -- near Alma School and 10th Street -- shortly before 3 a.m.
Mesa police say those cars are possibly related to the ones in Chandler.
Neither Chandler police nor Mesa police reported any injuries in the fires, although Favazzo says it could've been "really, really bad" considering the unpredictable nature of car fires, and the fact that any of the fires could've spread to a house.
Neither department has any suspects so far.
