After a couple of cars went up into flames in South Boston, police are looking into what could have caused the fires.
The two cars were torched around the same time not far from each other, and police are considering both of the fires suspicious.
One of the car fires was at West First Street and F Street in South Boston, and the other was at East Second Street and O Street. Both went up in flames early in the morning Thursday, according to police, who are now investigating whether the two fires are connected.
Adam Kavanewsky, who had his relatively new SUV parked outside his apartment building, said he awoke to what sounded like little bombs going off, then he smelled the smoke and saw the glow of the flames. The car fire was concerning enough, but when police told Kavanewsky it was suspicious, he says that was pretty scary for him and his neighbors.
Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters.
"Obviously I don't know what anyone's motive was," Kavanewsky said. "I was told by police someone was going around, and this was the second car that caught fire. They told me that someone lit the trash on fire just right here in front of the building and then pushed it on the vehicle and it was up in flames in minutes, and it woke everyone up. I didn’t even realize it was my car."
Kavanewsky said the incident has made him feel unsafe in his own neighborhood.
"It kind of gives a sense of unease and last night kind of feels like a fever dream," he said. "It’s just kind of upsetting to know there are people out there who are willing to like take actions that they don’t understand the consequences for."
Boston officers arrived on scene at the corner of East Second Street and O Street to find a car "fully engulfed in flames", and Boston firefighters working to contain the flame, according to a police report obtained by NBC10 Boston.
Once the fire was put out, the report says, officers "observed extensive burn damage to the entirety of the vehicle, as well as trash cans partially burned next to the vehicle."
The report notes that by that point, officers had already responded to another car fire that morning, also in South Boston.
An Eversource employee reported seeing a man in a wheelchair leaving the scene of the Second Street fire just prior to firefighters’ arrival, police said.
Around the same time, police arrested a man in a wheelchair a few blocks away on outstanding warrants — but he has not been charged in this case, according to BPD.
“That’s terrible, poor guy going to work can’t find his car, don’t know that it caught fire,” barber Ottavio LoGrasso said, whose business is right near where one of the car fires happened.
"Scary stuff, happened right outside but yeah I’m glad it wasn’t my car that’s for sure," Brendan Shunney said, who lives nearby.
Boston police are asking anyone with information on the car fires to give them a call.
