4 Cars Set on Fire in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights, Rattling Residents

By Julie Zigoris : sfstandard – excerpt

Putting out fires is not how you want to start a new year—but that’s what happened for residents of a sleepy street in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood on New Year’s Eve.

Firefighters and police officers responded to reports of cars ablaze in the 300 block of Park Street around 9:30 p.m. Sunday and helped to extinguish fires in four unoccupied vehicles, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Police said witnesses reported seeing people setting the cars on fire and then fleeing the scene.

In security camera footage viewed by The Standard, a person is seen holding a large canister and then pouring what appears to be gas on the sidewalk, the street, and on top of a car. The trail of gasoline subsequently illuminates in flames.

Carlton McMillan, who lives on the block, told The Standard his neighbors’ security footage also showed the perpetrator pouring gas onto garages, into the engine bays of cars and even up the stairs of one home where he said children were celebrating New Year’s Eve…(more)

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