SAN ANTONIO — Long-time Austin Highway resident Bob Tolar says his wife let out a yelp Tuesday morning when she looked out her window and saw a fire consuming one of their sheds, 200 feet from their home.
Tolar said he wasn't surprised to see the shed ablaze, as it has happened many times in the past.
The Beitel Creek greenbelt is in their backyard and they have struggled for years with problems caused by people who are homeless who have set up elaborate camps in the woods.
"You can see the remnants of several campfires around here and one guy even had a very elaborate kitchen set up in the woods," Tolar said.
But even in an area of what he calls entrenched encampments, Tolar said what happened throughout the day Tuesday was unusual.
"The flames were, I don't know, probably eight to ten feet over the roof," Tolar said, adding he wasn't too worried because Fire Station 24 is just across his fence. They were quick to respond, he said.
Tolar believes his fire may have been the first in a string of arson fires in the area that stretched into the overnight hours.
One call for help came in during the 9 p.m. hour nearby on Ira Lee Road.
A small sedan in the driveway of a home was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.
The police EAGLE helicopter was in the area, and they spotted a fence on fire nearby and a little later in the same zone, a brush fire was reported.
90 minutes later at a business farther south on the same block, firefighters found three more vehicles burning.
Police say around 12:40 a.m. a call came out on the 2000 block of Austin Highway when an officer looking for the suspect saw a man run behind a tire shop.
Witnesses recorded video of the suspect on the roof of the shop, taunting first responders while tires burned in a vacant lot behind the business.
One neighbor said the man was able to escape from police by jumping from the roof to a nearby RV in the parking lot and then scampering down a ladder and running into a nearby brushy area.
Police said the suspect made it to the post office on Austin Highway and somehow, once again, climbed a ladder onto the roof.
Once again, the police helicopter helped with the search and firefighters were called in to offer assistance with a ladder.
After a long session of coaxing, police said the man finally climbed down and was taken into custody at 2:25 a.m.
The suspect was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, after his extended period of running and leaping from buildings.
According to online jail records, the man arrested has been identified as 28-year-old Freddy German Padilla Riera. He has been charged with arson, with a bond of $75,000, and evading arrest or detention with a bond of $5,000.
Meanwhile, in a completely unrelated event nearby, workers from the city were nearby Wednesday morning at the corner of Eisenhauer and Holbrook roads, abating an extensive homeless encampment in the Salado Creek hike and bike corridor.
The effort was pre-planned and notices had been posted, warning the residents that they could accept help moving into some sort of shelter or face the removal of their belongings.
City officials said cleanups on Salado and Beitel Creek are a regular occurrence in an effort to keep the area safe.