The State - News from July 24, 1986

An arsonist torched two warehouses on Monterey’s famed Cannery Row, destroying four small businesses and causing $1 million in damage but no injuries, fire officials said. It was the second $1-million fire in three days in the oceanside city. Investigators were seeking to determine whether there was any connection between the two fires, which occurred some distance from each other. “It was definitely arson,” a Fire Department spokeswoman said of the spectacular Cannery Row blaze. Arson also was suspected in a pre-dawn fire Monday that caused $1.5 million in damage at a warehouse near the outskirts of Monterey near Seaside, the spokeswoman said. “In both cases, fires were started first in dumpsters some distance from the warehouses that later caught fire.”