LEWISTON – Two cars and a pickup truck burned in the downtown area overnight in what police and fire officials are calling an arson rampage.
The first reported fire came in at 11:23 p.m. Tuesday as a car went up in flames on Oak Street near the parking garage. That vehicle was fully engulfed when it was first spotted, and fire officials immediately suspected the blaze had been set.
At midnight, while crews remained on Oak Street, a pickup truck was reported ablaze on Canal Street Alley, behind United Kingfield Bank.
Firefighters responding to the second location found a Ford truck on fire and flames shooting up toward a garage and an adjacent building. Crews made quick work of the vehicle fire, but flames melted siding off the nearby buildings, and dark smoke could be seen from blocks away.
“Another couple minutes and that building would have gone right up,” said Lewiston fire Capt. Larry Morin.
Minutes later, at 12:05 a.m., a police officer searching for witnesses found another car on fire on Chestnut Street. This one, a Hyundai, was burning from the interior as it sat parked outside Simones’ Hot Dog Stand near the corner of Chestnut and Park streets.
Police and fire officials said it was clear the three fires were related and that each had been set.
“It’s definitely arson,” said Morin. “There’s no doubt somebody is on a rampage.”
Investigators believe the person or persons responsible made their way from Oak Street down toward the Lisbon Street area where the other two vehicles were set on fire.
A fourth car was found ransacked on Park Street, not far from the Chestnut Street blaze, and police believe the vandalism was also related to the set fires.
Police officers fanned out through the downtown in search of witnesses and possible suspects. Shortly before 1 a.m., officers stopped a person found carrying several lighters and knives not far from the scene of the last blaze on Chestnut Street.
Police also recovered various items from that person and they were attempting to locate owners of the burned vehicles to determine whether those items had been stolen.
A Lewiston fire inspector was called to investigate the cause of the fires. He was moving from one vehicle to the next as his probe began.
Lewiston police Sgt. David St. Pierre said detectives would also be joining the investigation as the search for suspects continued early this morning.
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