Series of Thursday fires raise concerns for Shandon neighborhood residents

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) —A series of fires broke out early Thursday morning in the Shandon neighborhood.

No one was injured, but some neighbors think these fires were not random.

Officers with the Columbia Police Department and SLED were out investigating a house fire on the 3200 block of Heyward Street into the early afternoon investigating what ignited the fires.

Police can not stay with certainty that all of the fires are connected at this time, but some neighbors are thinking otherwise.

Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah says he woke up to fire truck sirens not too far from his house.

“Of course we had to come out and see what was going on, but it was a lot bigger damage than I could have anticipated, but we didn’t know anything about the other fires until after I started talking to the neighbors,” Baddourah said.

In addition to the house fire, a garbage can fire broke out just down the street, a boat cover also went up in flames three blocks down, and firefighters combatted flames on the bed of a truck on Cannon Street.

The man who lived in the home was not hurt, and is currently staying with neighbors.

“They fed him, they tried to comfort him, I gave him some clothes to wear until he buys some more new clothes, but that’s what neighborhood is all about and that’s what really is a positive out of all of this is that all the neighbors stepped up together trying to help him out and trying to comfort him as much as possible,” Baddourah said.

Baddourah says the number of incidents occurring in a short distance from each other concerns him and other neighbors.

He says this is not the first time a random series of fires have popped up in the neighborhood, and he hopes investigators get to the bottom of it.

“Nobody thought this was going to happen again. I think we may have had an arson problem a few years back and investigators caught up to him and caught him real quick, and hopefully this is the case over here,” Baddourah said.

The Columbia Police Department said the fires broke out within 45 minutes of each other. A department spokesperson say there was $82,000 worth of property damage, and that it is too early to tell whether all four of the fires are connected.

The department also released surveillance video of a possible vehicle of interest driving through the neighborhood.

ABC Columbia spoke with the man who lives in the home that caught on fire. He said he’s trying to stay positive and also says he is grateful he nor his dogs were hurt.