Police suspect that someone, possibly the owner, set a camper-equipped Ford 250 on fire Tuesday evening blocking 25th Street near the Muni railyard and completely destroying the vehicle. Police arrested a suspect a few blocks away from the fire shortly after it began at 7 p.m.
“I believe it was his van,” said Sgt. Dominc Yin from the Bayview police station.
Sgt. Yin said the suspect was “detained by units at 23rd and 3rd” streets as he waited there on the T-Line Muni rail platform.
“I saw him on the platform and we swung around,” Sgt. Yin said.
Employees of the Muni railyard, who gathered to watch the camper go up in flames, said this was not the first time they had seen the suspected arsonist in the area. The same man was found inside the railyard about a week and a half earlier, and again tried to sneak into the railyard on Friday, but someone stopped him at the gate, they said.
This second time around, according to employees, he wasn’t wearing pants.
They said the same man tried to torch his camper on Sunday, but that attempt was discovered and put out quickly by authorities before it had done any significant damage to the van.
Broken glass supposedly from the earlier attempt littered 25th street a few yards away from Tuesday’s fire. A broken headstock from an acoustic guitar lay in the street as well.
There were no reported injuries and no damage besides the van.