http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/410568.html
Seven overnight car fires rock Amherst neighborhood
By Brian Hayden NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 08/09/08 5:59 AM
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Jim Wolford commuted from work on his bicycle Friday. He didn’t have much choice.
Vandals torched the Amherst resident’s pickup truck, minivan and sedan in front of his house early Friday. The charred vehicles are nearly a total loss.
“In all the years I lived here, nothing like this has ever happened,” the lifelong resident of the town said.
Wolford was not alone. A total of seven car fires early Friday rocked the quiet neighborhood near Sheridan Drive and North Forest Road. Amherst police are investigating the fires as arsons.
The fires, which destroyed several of the vehicles and left many residents scrambling to find a new means to get around, left a trail of burnt destruction between 3:30 a. m. and 4:18 a. m.
“They’re all connected, and that’s what we’re working on right now,” said Snyder Assistant Fire Chief Tim Green. “For the most part, they appear to be random.”
A few charred remains were all that were left of Michael Gray’s 1992 Corolla, parked in front of his home on Cindy Drive. His car was the first target of the arsonists, police said.
The family was awakened by police to find flames shooting into the sky. The incident caused Gray’s brother, Gary, to spend Friday installing brighter lights on top of their garage.
“You get lulled into living in a sense of security here [in Amherst],” Gary said. “This opens up your eyes a little more.”
Gary Gray could not understand the motives behind destroying the car, which his mother also used to get back and forth from the store.
“It’s not like they got anything out of it except a sadistic thrill,” he said.
Emergency responders then crossed Sheridan Drive to find a Jeep parked on Somersby Court fully engulfed in flames. The blaze occurred in front of off-duty firefighter Brian Parkot’s home.
Much to his family’s worry, Parkot, a 38-year veteran of the Snyder Fire Department, was the first to respond in jeans and a T-shirt with a garden hose to try to save his nephew’s Jeep and adjoining Jet Ski. The Jeep sustained $17,000 in damage and the Jet Ski had about $1,000 in heat damage from the flames.
“Whoever started [the fires] last night knew what they were doing,” he said. “They got going quickly and they burned hot.”
Just a few minutes later, crews raced around the corner to the home of Jim Wolford’s mother, where a pickup and sport utility vehicle were smoldering out front with some interior burn damage. Then, Wolford’s three vehicles were found ablaze in front of his home on Thistle Lea. Investigators don’t believe Wolford or his family were specifically targeted.
Somersby Court, Devon Lane and Thistle Lea all are just south of Sheridan Drive, east of the Youngmann Highway and west of North Forest Road. Cindy Drive is less than a mile away, north of Sheridan Drive.
Most of the vehicles were unlocked; several had at least one window partially open as well.
Residents are encouraged to lock their cars and put them in a garage if possible.
Prior to Friday, Amherst police were investigating a July 28 vehicle arson on Cindy Drive and a few reports of minor damage to parked cars in the neighborhood, Green said.
Anyone who may have seen anything related to the fires is asked to call the Amherst Police Department’s detective hotline at 689-1333.
Wolford has lived in the same neighborhood, in either his mother’s home or his current residence, for his entire life. He had left his first check from his new painting job on his vehicle’s dashboard; now, he’ll have to wait to be paid.
“I’m thankful for what I have and thankful for what I don’t have to have,” he said. “I’ll make it through.
