The first fire in a four-month arson spree sprang to life in the aisles of a Dollar Tree store off Rollins Avenue in Rockville. The second involved a shopping cart full of trash ignited and sent down the ramp of a nearby parking garage. By the time firefighters put out the flames that damaged three buses for the French International School on April 16, nine vehicles were burned in 17 related incidents, causing $250,000 worth of damage.
Investigators announced the arrest of two Rockville teens charged with the fires Friday.
“A geographic analyst really identified our fire trend, our fire spree,” said investigator Capt. Kevin Frazier. “These are all in walking distance,” he gestured toward a cluster of a dozen arson fires in the Aspen Hill neighborhood of Rockville.
They are a few miles from another cluster of fires surrounding the intersection of Montrose Parkway and Rockville Pike where the buses burned.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Thomas Carr said a break in the case came when someone called investigators about postings related to the fires on MySpace.com. Investigators found pictures of at least three of the arsons posted by someone who “had information about the fires and where they were set.”
Officials did not say whether the two teens charged posted the pictures themselves or who took them, but Frazier speculated they were probably nearby watching as firefighters arrived to put the fires out.
Having a worldwide forum through the Internet may be an attractive factor for young people trying to make a mark on the world, officials said.
“This is the first time fire and explosives investigators ran into a situation where we got information from that Web site,” Frazier said, though he acknowledged MySpace and similar online forums have been linked to a number of high-profile crimes by and against young people.
“It’s amazing how much these kids use that,” said county police Lt. Melanie Nickerson.
