Arsonist suspected in two Victorian house fires, blocks apart, in midtown Sacramento

Two homes under renovation in midtown Sacramento, blocks away from each other, were set ablaze three hours apart early Saturday in what authorities believe was arson.

The first fire was reported at 5:20 a.m. in the 2200 block of Capitol Avenue in a home that was raised on cribbing, said Capt. Keith Wade, spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department. The fire spread so quickly that more firefighters were called out to “surround and drown” the flames and protect neighboring homes that were damaged by the heat and under threat of catching fire.

Another 911 call came in at 8:11 a.m. reporting a second fire in the 2000 block of I Street, Wade said, six blocks away from the first fire. The house was also raised on cribbing in the process of renovation, and someone allegedly tried to set a fire in multiple spots in the cribbing, he added.

“Limited fire made it into the structure,” Wade said. “It appears that someone tried to start the fires at the same time but the I Street fire didn’t spread as fast.”

Both properties have the same owner and that person was notified of the fires this morning, Wade said. The owner has a third property in the area and fire personnel checked on the site this morning to make sure another fire had not started there, he added.

“We were close to a really big incident in downtown Sacramento but luckily that second fire didn’t burn with the same intensity as the first one and didn’t start at the same time,” Wade said.

Neighbors said the homes were being renovated by the same contractor as well.

A neighbor who called 911 spotted the man believed to have started the Capitol Avenue blaze. She asked that her name not be used for fear she may be targeted.

The neighbor said the house under construction “has had a lot of break-ins” and that the man who started the blaze kept “making noise” as he moved around the rear of the stilted house.

“It was clearly an intentional act,” the neighbor said in describing the man as white and stocky in a black leather jacket. The neighbor said the man waited for the fire to spread before jumping over the construction fence “in one jump” and into the alley at the back of the property.

“I saw a flicker, and realized it wasn’t just his flashlight,” the neighbor said.

David Carlson, another next-door resident who saw flames shooting from the Capitol Avenue house, said flames quickly engulfed the property, which had little on the ground floor because the home was propped up one story for an addition.

He said the house had only been on cribbing for a couple of weeks but that the property had been fenced off some time.

“I woke up about 5:30 a.m. and it was pretty much up in flames,” he said. “The fire department showed up before I could even get out of the house.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2019 at 10:29 AM.