Investigators looking for leads in Saratoga Springs fires

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Fire officials are hoping the public may have seen something suspicious on Redwood Road on Sunday afternoon.  They’re still looking for leads in tracking down the person who lit a series of fires in the dry grass.

One of the fires started to creep to the subdivision where Paula Hill lives.  She and her neighbors got word the fire was spreading while she was in church.  She says, “We were concerned about how close it might come to the house, but, there was no wind and it was not getting close.  So, we just all stood there and watched and worried.”  However, fire crews were able to knock down each of the fires before they could reach homes.

Hill adds that she was deeply disappointed to learn the fires were likely intentionally set by someone traveling along Redwood Road.  “You think, ‘It must be kids.  Who else would have that bad judgement?’”

The spacing of the fires is what makes investigators believes they were deliberately set.  “They are beyond the point of believing that it was any kind of car malfunction or chain dragging on the road.  The reason for that is each of these fires were evenly spaced out, about half a mile, each,” according to Saratoga Springs City Spokesman David Johnson.

Officials say the first fire to be lit was the one furthest south.  “Whomever lit these fires, or whatever lit these fires, had a northbound destination,” Johnson says.  He adds that since the blazes were on the west side of the road, it’s possible that someone was starting the fires from the driver’s side of a vehicle that was going north.

Investigators are still trying to determine if accelerants were used.  The fires blackened over 100 acres, in all.