SAN ANTONIO — At 5:25 Tuesday morning, Michael Perez said he awoke to the smell of smoke in his near east side neighborhood.
"I smelled the smoke and then I looked out the window and it was a big old fire," Perez said.
Perez said after he called for help, he told neighbors in the 100 block of Omaha, at Hackberry, to get moving because he was afraid cars parked in the street would catch fire or melt.
One little girl with asthma had to get medical help. Perez said “It was real bad."
Perez said he believes someone is setting a series of fires without considering the consequences.
"They're hurting children. They're hurting everybody. They don’t have respect for people."
Perez and others believe someone has a grudge against development that is pushing both home prices and rental rates up in a neighborhood where many homes date back to the early 1900s.
Ryan, who said he evacuated his home March 15 when a fire on Center Street threatened his family, said he came to the new fire scene to learn everything he can to protect himself.
“Just this morning I purchased a ladder that I can hang from my three-story house, so I can get out of my window in case my house is on fire,” Ryan said, adding he believes developers who are rushing headlong into new building projects have a duty to provide some sort of increased security in the area.
Ryan said "Night after night, somebody else's property is burning down. Families are put at risk. Not just property."
Ryan said he believes someone angry about all the new development is responsible for the fires, which also include two big losses over the weekend.
Around midnight Sunday, a home at the corner of Delaware and Hoefgen, just south of the Alamodome, was lost and then a few hours later, about 10am, a new two-story home under construction in the 300 block of North Pine was declared a loss after fire tore through the unfinished walls, floors and attic.
Ryan said “Somebody has a vendetta against developers. It seems somebody is targeting these developers as a form of revenge.”
Pointing out concerns related to how fast a fire can spread house to house, Ryan said everyone in the area needs to be paying close attention to their surroundings.
“The overflow (with the fires) is other properties will be affected. We live in a very tight-knit community and I don't just mean relationally, I mean geographically,” Ryan said, adding “None of these houses have land. They are very small plots. And so houses are destroyed around them.”
With regard to the home on Omaha, firefighters said they were told the house was under renovation.
San Antonio Fire Department Lt. Jose Munoz said his team was quick to respond because they were just three blocks away.
"It was completely involved in fire. It was one huge fireball!” Munoz said, adding “We already had flames going through the window and roof.”
Munoz said the home was vacant and boarded up when they arrived, as was the house next door, which was also charred from the intense flames from the original fire.
Complicating their response, Munoz said was the fact that a gas line ruptured when the home started to collapse on itself.
The escaping natural gas formed a blow torch that burned for almost three hours. Munoz said the way the line broke required CPS Energy to dig up the street to reach the problem supply line.
At daybreak, as smoke still rose from the demolished home, an army of arson investigators fanned out into the surrounding neighborhood looking for clues.
Investigators talked with neighbors and scoured the area talking with anyone who appeared to have a surveillance camera, but the fire department will say little about what they're learning.
Ryan, who said many people are feeling a great deal of stress over the continuing threat, said "It's not going to stop. It's not going to stop until whoever is caught."
Vincent Aguilar, who lives nearby said he was concerned when he woke up and found firefighters dousing the house next door, the yards, and all the nearby trees with water.
Aguilar said he was glad his dog alerted him to trouble, because when he looked outside he saw a big cloud of smoke and an orange haze of flames.
Aguilar said he plans to keep a close eye on what’s going on around him now.
"I mean all you can really do is just stay vigilant and keep a look out for anything happening," Aguilar said.
San Antonio Police have not yet responded to a KENS 5 request for information about what they might be doing to increase patrols in the area.
District 2 Council representative Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said SAPD and SAFD's arson investigators are working to identify a suspect.
"SAPD will increase visibility in the area where the fires have been set and other places that are deemed to be potential targets," he said.
We do not know if the incidents are happening in isolation of one another or if there is correlation. Our office is awaiting more news from the relevant departments. If you have any information and would like to share anonymously, please call the non-emergency fire line at: 210.207.7744!”