Series of fires have Lake Eola residents afraid

Before sunrise last Friday, a crackling noise awoke Emily Bonvini in her Highland Avenue apartment in downtown Orlando.

When she got out of bed to investigate, she spotted flames burning her fence and reaching nearly as tall as the second story of their Lake Eola Heights unit.

Her boyfriend and their neighbor rushed outside and doused the fire with the apartment’s fire extinguisher, but it already scorched a recycling cart. While outside, they saw a dumpster behind a nearby law firm ablaze, and then another sparked up between buildings near their complex.

In all, fire investigators have investigated at least seven fires in the neighborhood in a fourday period. Officials report several similarities: The blazes all started in garbage cans, recycling carts or dumpsters, and all appear to be intentionally set.

“I am very concerned about these fires,” Bonvini said in an email. “If I hadn’t noticed the flames outside my bedroom earlier, it could have caught our tree and subsequently our house on fire, creating a much larger problem.”

“We just can't have people setting trash on fire here, especially with the drier winter weather we've been having,” she said.

On Friday, investigators looked into five fires across four locations, and fire department spokeswoman Ashley Papagni reported two more trash sparked up Sunday night.

This week arson investigators were knocking on doors in the neighborhood, hoping that homeowners with surveillance cameras may have captured something suspicious that would aid their investigation.

“Having four of them in an overnight in the same downtown area certainly is suspicious,” said Deputy Chief Rich Wales.

They stretch to each corner of the neighborhood, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The fire department investigated blazes:

Nov. 29 at 10:31 p.m. at the intersection of Concord Street fires