Undercover at Night, on the Trail of an Arsonist

It’s a clear night in the San Fernando Valley. From Fire Station 73 on Reseda Boulevard the street lights form a bright, straight line that tapers off into the hills to the north. It is warm and there isn’t much of a breeze. But Bill Cass and Glen Lucero wear light jackets over their black T-shirts--to hide the guns holstered at their sides.

Cass tests their undercover car’s portable emergency light; the red strobe flashes across his face and the interior of the car. He tunes the portable radio to the frequency assigned for tonight’s outing. Then, the equipment checked and ready, the car pulls away from the fire station and into evening traffic. Cass cracks a window and samples the air.

“Good night for a fire,” he says.

The Los Angeles Fire Department said that since Oct. 1, it has counted 110 related arson fires in the Reseda-Northridge-Canoga Park area. Damage has been minimal, sometimes almost unnoticeable. In each case, trash or trees were set on fire. A few times, sparks from the fires have been carried by the wind and caused minor damage to nearby structures or cars.

Although damage has been slight, the sheer number of related fires is great--the most in Los Angeles that any city arson investigator on the case can remember.

That’s why Cass and Lucero--part of the city’s 19-member arson squad--are off the normal track on this night. They are not going to dig through charred debris, trace the spread pattern of a fire or collect ash samples to be tested by a gas chromatograph for fire accelerants.

Tonight they are chasing the phantom, patrolling the West Valley like undercover cops, on the watch for a pyromaniac who has puzzled them for half a year.

Lucero, behind the wheel, cuts west on Sherman Way and then weaves his way north through the dark neighborhood streets where the arsonist has often struck. They watch for anything or anyone suspicious. If a fire call comes over the radio they will roll on it--not to help put it out, but to look for the person who started it.

Battalion Chief William Burmester, who held a briefing at Station 73 before this recent night’s patrol started, said the department is pursuing the arsonist because of the danger that he might move from small targets such as trees and trash cans to homes and businesses, endangering lives.

Burmester, head of the city’s arson unit, said there is also the danger that the Fire Department’s response to a significant fire in the area could be slowed if firefighters are tied up on the smaller fires set by the arsonist.

“There is always a danger, even with a guy like this who is not setting large fires,” Burmester said. “We feel there is a real clear and present danger. We are out looking for him.”

The unmarked car, Unit A-3, cruises into Canoga Park. Several other arson units are also on patrol in the fire zone, which extends roughly from White Oak Avenue west to Oso Avenue, and from Sherman Way north to Parthenia Street.

But, so far, it is quiet. No reports of fires on the radio. And the arson units don’t communicate, choosing instead to maintain radio silence in case the arsonist is listening.

Unit A-3 passes a stand of palm trees on Oso Avenue that the arsonist hit a week earlier. The fronds atop the stark, charred trunks point skyward like black spears. The smell of smoke is still in the air.

“We came awful close last week,” Cass says after sweeping a flashlight across the damage. “We had a car go by here, then 30 seconds later these trees were set. One minute the other way and we might have caught him. It has been that frustrating.”

Not all of the 110 fires included in this investigation were the work of one person. A 16-year-old Reseda boy with emotional problems was arrested Jan. 23 after he admitted he set six of the fires, copying the original arsonist’s pattern of targeting trees and trash.

There could be other copycats, but for the most part investigators believe the fires are being set by one person or perhaps two people working together, and although they usually refer to the person as “him” they are not certain about the arsonist’s sex. Often several fires are started on a single night. As long as two weeks go by before there is another one.

The theory that there may be two arsonists working together--one a fire starter, the other a driver--is based on the mobility needed to have set these fires.

“The fires are set so quickly,” Lucero says. “Some nights there will be a fire reported in one spot and then right away there is another a few blocks away. It could be one guy lighting them and somebody else doing the driving.”

Unit A-3 moves slowly through a warehouse section in Northridge. It is nearing 9 p.m. and the garage doors are all closed, the area deserted. The dumpsters at the end of each row of warehouses are full because tomorrow is trash pickup day. That makes tonight an ideal situation for a firebug, Cass says. But, still, the radio stays silent.

“It’s beginning to look like a slow night,” Cass says.

Though, for the most part, the fires have been concentrated in Reseda and adjacent areas and generally occur in the early evenings, no specific pattern or motive has emerged to help investigators identify a suspect.

“It is almost completely random as far as the locations go,” Cass says. “Recently he’s been more interested in trees than trash. We don’t know what that means.”

Even more baffling is the question of why.

Investigators say the case is an enigma. The arsonist apparently has an affinity for burning trees and trash, creating fires that investigators say often are spectacular. But rather than staying nearby to watch his work, the arsonist quickly moves on to set other fires--sometimes as many as 12 a night. “All pyros don’t stand around and watch,” says Lucero. “This one doesn’t.”

Investigators have worked for months to determine a motive for the fires but have come up with nothing.

“Because it doesn’t follow any normal pattern, it has been really hard to peg this one,” Cass says. “We are wide open on motive. Is it vandalism or harassment? Is it us, the Fire Department or the city? A particular neighborhood? We don’t know.”

Cass, the senior investigator assigned to the case, has interviewed convicted arsonists who now live in the area, checked out disgruntled firefighters and police officers and unsuccessful applicants for those jobs, and even studied graffiti found near some of the fires, thinking that the arsons were possibly part of a gang initiation rite.

None of the efforts turned up a suspect.

“We’ve kicked a lot of rocks over and haven’t found anything,” Cass says. “There is no rhyme or reason to this. We’re getting burned out. No pun intended,” adds Lucero.

What may be left, investigators say, is the motive of arson for no other reason than the thrill of setting a fire and getting away with it. Though the fire starter may not stay to watch his fires, he may have a communications scanner that allows him to listen to firefighters being dispatched to the blazes. Investigators say he may derive satisfaction from that--and his ability to so far elude authorities.

“There is a fine line between pyro and psycho,” Cass says. The reason for the arsons could be “emotional dysfunction. The more fires he sets, the more he gets away from vandalism” and other more common motivations, such as harassment, retribution or spite.

What concerns investigators about this last possibility is that arsonists who derive psychological pleasure from fires often follow a pattern of setting increasingly larger fires.

“Usually they start out small and gradually go to bigger fires,” Burmester said before the patrol. “This one hasn’t done that. I don’t know why. But that’s our concern, that he could graduate to something else.”

In a parking lot near Roscoe, there is a car that resembles the description of one seen leaving the area of an arson fire. Lucero writes down the plate number to be checked later, and Unit A-3 continues its patrol.

Despite the arson patrols, investigators believe that it may take a lucky break to solve the mystery. Perhaps the arsonist will slip up or somebody will get a good look at him or his license plate number.

Fire Department officials have gone to homeowners meetings and put posters in shop windows throughout the area, asking residents to be on the watch for the arsonist. A reward of up to $1,000 is offered by an anonymous tip service for information leading to an arrest.

“We want people to be aware that he’s out there,” Burmester had said back at Station 73. “We need them to be on the lookout. We could have 20 of our cars out here and probably not catch him. We welcome calls from the public. Any information at all.”

It’s 9:30 p.m. and not a single fire call, arson or otherwise, has come from the area the units are patrolling. On the nights the arsonist has struck, he has never started later than this. So Cass decides to end the surveillance and bring the other units back to Station 73. He breaks radio silence for the first time: “Let’s call it a night and meet back at the barn.”

No fires, no arrest. That doesn’t sit well with Cass. He calls the arsonist one of the toughest opponents he has faced in 13 years as an arson investigator.

“This guy is pretty bold,” he says. “I’m sensing we are into a cat-and-mouse game.”

But how long the game will last, and who is playing which part, isn’t always clear.

“It’s kind of like he’s yanking our chain a little,” Cass says, the frustration showing in his voice. “He’s got to know we are out here. Is he watching us? Who knows?”