SAN JOSE — State firefighting authorities have dispatched an arson investigation team to probe two trash-can fires they believe were intentionally set by the same person on the San Jose State University campus late last month.
Cal Fire’s Office of the State Fire Marshal posted these security-camera images with a description of a person they suspect in two trash-can fires they believe were intentionally set at San Jose State University: One in the late afternoon on March 31 and another on April 8. (Surveillance image/ Cal Fire State Fire Marshal)
In a Tuesday news release, Cal Fire’s Office of the State Fire Marshal also posted two security-camera images and a description of a person they suspect in the fire reported in the late afternoon March 31.
Capt. Frank Belcastro of the San Jose State University Police Department — which is jointly investigating the fire with the state fire marshal’s Arson and Bomb Unit — said the March 31 fire occurred in a seventh-floor men’s restroom of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.
That fire was set in a trash can and was extinguished before it caused major damage, Belcastro said.
Then on Monday, another trash-can fire was discovered in an eighth-floor men’s restroom at the library. Belcastro said investigators believe the same person set both fires.
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Security images show a person described as a suspect entering and exiting a restroom after apparently changing clothes and holding a red lighter, around the time of the March 31 fire.
Authorities are seeking assistance in identifying the person in the surveillance images, who they describe as a light-skinned person of unknown gender between their late 20s and early 30s, with a medium build, standing between 5-foot-8 and 6 feet tall and weighing between 150 and 180 pounds. The person was reportedly last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, mirrored sunglasses, a red tube top, dark blue pants, black shoes and carrying a tan-strapped bag.
Anyone with information for investigators can contact SJSU police at 408-924-2222 or the Cal Fire Arson and Bomb Unit at 213-302-5855 or arsonbomb@fire.ca.gov.