A dumpster, trash cans, a church — Lakewood police seeking help solving series of arsons

Lakewood police are trying to solve a series of early-morning fires from earlier this month.

Four fires were maliciously set between 4:20 a.m. and 5:40 a.m. July 14 in areas near Bridgeport Way Southwest east of the Lakewood Towne Center, police believe.

“These are scary because, if they don’t get suppressed by someone who sees it or the fire department, if it’s a church going down, it’s a huge loss to the community,” police spokesman Chris Lawler said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s the same thing with an occupied building — we really don’t want a loss of life.”

Police are unsure who is behind the fires, Lawler said, but there don’t appear to be any other suspicious fires recently.

People who see suspicious activities in Lakewood during the overnight hours are asked to call 911, Lawler said.

“Usually, it’s slow that time of night,” he said. “We can usually be Johnny-on-the-spot on those kind of things.”

The four locations of the fires were as follows:

▪ Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 10333 Bridgeport Way SW

▪ Two trash cans at Active Park, 10506 Russell Road SW

▪ A dumpster in the 10700 block of Bridgeport Way Southwest

▪ A storage area in the 4700 block of 101st Street Southwest.

Anyone with hot tips on the series of fires is asked to contact Lakewood police Det. Rey Punzalan at 253-830-5000 or the South Sound 911 non-emergency line at 253-798-4721.

This story was originally published July 25, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "A dumpster, trash cans, a church — Lakewood police seeking help solving series of arsons."