Cars Set on fire in Mount Vernon, police look for person of interest

RadioOnFire.com - Mount Vernon residents awoke Friday morning to find multiple cars melted to the ground after being set on fire. Baltimore City Fire dispatch officials said they received the call around 3 a.m. Arriving officers found nine cars on fire. Officials said they found one car in the 1000 block of St. Paul Street, two cars in the unit block of E. Eager Street, three cars in the 1000 block of Charles Street and three cars near Penn Station on Charles Street. Advertisement "Somebody apparently took an accelerant and put it on a number of cars," Interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle said. Baltimore police said seven of the vehicles were targeted and two caught fire as a result of the others. Detectives released images of a person of interest who they said was seen on surveillance video. WBAL-TV According to Owl Bar general manager Jackie Snyder, the bar provided police with video of a woman torching a car on St. Paul Street. Snyder said, earlier in the evening, the woman arrived at 12:45 a.m. at The Belvedere. 

A guest complained about a homeless woman washing clothes in a bathroom sink. The staff investigated, smelled gasoline and found two small gas cans in the woman's white shopping bag. They confiscated the bag and escorted the woman out of the building at 1:04 a.m. Snyder connected the dots after seeing social media alerts about the car fires and contacted police. "I hear a loud boom. You can feel the heat. I'm on top of the third floor," said Patrick Vaughn, a witness. "It singed your ears. It was crazy like a war zone." "(At) 4 a.m., (I) heard a very loud explosion. Then, I heard a second one. Then, the building shook," said Jeffrey Grabelle, a witness. "It's scary to think this could happen so close to a house where you live." "I certainly didn't expect to see two cars here -- two-story flames, totally burned, totally gutted," said Bill Sutton, a witness. 

Baltimore police investigators are working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Baltimore on the case. ATF-certified fire investigators are combing through what's left of the vehicles. Using computer software programs, ATF experts use mathematical equations to determine the chemical and physical behavior of the fire.

Source WBAL