PORT ANGELES — Another mysterious Wednesday night fire has struck the city, this time in a vehicle on the west side.
A pickup truck was set ablaze late Wednesday just before midnight in the 1000 block of West 13th Street.
It is the fourth parked-vehicle fire in three consecutive Wednesday nights in Port Angeles, and authorities say they are actively investigating to find the firebug or firebugs responsible.
“We do believe that they are connected,” Port Angeles Police Detective Sgt. Eric Kovatch said of the fires on Thursday.
In fact, the latest blaze could be part of a string of 10 or more car fires this year.
The fires in the previous two Wednesdays — one on March 30 and two on March 23 — were within a block of Jessie Webster Park in central Port Angeles, as was a Thursday, Feb. 10, incident.
But Kovatch said there have been at least three suspicious car fires in the 1000 block of West 13th since the beginning of the year, including the most recent blaze, and at least 11 total in the city since Jan. 1.
18 months of fires
Police are compiling information on every suspicious fire during the past 18 months, of which there are “a fair amount,” Kovatch said.
That includes the suspected arson Oct. 14 that destroyed part of the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on East Eighth Street, and another that same Thursday night that burned in a large trash container outside the Serenity House Thrift Store on East First Street.
Those crimes are both unsolved.