Neighbors suspect arson after string of cypress tree fires over past month
By Tori Apodaca
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SACRAMENTO (KOVR/KMAX) — Neighbors near Carmichael are on edge after a string of cypress tree fires have occurred over the past month.
The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District told CBS13 that it is not ruling out arson, but it is still investigating all the different fires.
Neighbors said the latest blaze was to a set of cypress trees on Muldrow Road and Esrig Way around 6:15 a.m. Wednesday.
“We’re all a nervous wreck,” said Kandace Knudsen, who lives nearby.
Video shows how the flames chewed up the trees on Esrig Way in minutes and also spread to a van in the driveway of one of the homes, melting the plastic into the ground.
“We can’t even open the doors,” Stephanie Buckingham said. “They won’t open.”
Buckingham said a neighbor knocked on her door, and she rushed out of the house with her husband and three children as fire crews stopped the fire from scorching homes.
“I ran out in bare feet because I didn’t think about it, and I burned the bottom of my feet on the ashes,” Buckingham said.
“I learned about 10 minutes before he tried to light our cypress trees on fire,” Knudsen said.
Knudsen shared surveillance video from her home just around the corner. At around 6:08 a.m., you can see a man in a hood appearing to try and light her cypress trees on fire, but they didn’t quite spark the way the ones on Esrig Way did. A home security camera there caught a similar character on camera.
At around 1:30 a.m. that same day, a business not far from the neighborhood on Manzanita Avenue said its cypress tree was also on fire.
“That’s what we heard from the fireman,” said Buckingham. “That we were the sixth fire yesterday morning.”
Just a month before that, just a few streets over, neighbors said that a cypress tree was ignited by fire.
Then, the next night, on the other side of the yard, a whole set of cypress trees went up in flames and scorched the side of a home and fence.
“We were alarmed. I mean, I have three kids. They have three kids,” said Bon Rejuso, who lives nearby.
Neighbors said they are now patrolling the streets themselves with sleepless nights and fear of another fire.
“I can’t imagine if this continues that someone won’t lose their house and maybe lose a life,” Knudsen said.
Metro Fire could not confirm how many fires there have been, but said it is piecing all of them together and not ruling out arson.
It gave CBS13 this statement:
“Metro Fire has recently responded to a series of small ornamental tree and plant fires in the community of Citrus Heights. Our Arson Investigation team is actively investigating these incidents to gather additional information and determine if they are related. The investigation is in its early stages, and we will provide further details once we have more data.”
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