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Jesse Sutherland did his best to sweep away the soot before the first charges of the morning arrived at his wife's home day care center in Richmond's May Valley neighborhood.
"We have two entrances, so we've blocked off one and we're kind of funneling them to the other," Sutherland said Wednesday. "So the kids get in. We're not telling them, not talking about it."
They're also not driving them in the day care van, at least not anytime soon.
The Sutherlands lost the 15-seat van and an SUV early Wednesday, authorities say, to a firebug who rampaged across Richmond and El Sobrante during the early morning hours.
Richmond and Contra Costa County firefighters responded to six fires that consumed 11
View Several vehicles set ablaze in a larger map
"We're comfortable saying at this point that we believe these fires are all linked," said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan, whose agency investigated half the blazes.
Nobody got hurt. Fire officials say they're working to find a pattern to the arsonist's method of selection.
"We haven't found a lot of consistency in terms of the kinds of vehicles," Richmond Firefighter Rico Rincon said. "But they were all close in terms of proximity and in time."
The 911 calls began at 2:44 a.m., when someone reported a fire in the carport of an apartment complex at 3535 El Portal Road in Richmond. The flames charred four cars
Contra Costa Fire Dispatchers then received three separate calls over the next hour:
From there the arsonist crossed back into Richmond. Calls came at 5:04 a.m. from the 2900 block of De Anza Road, where two vehicles burned at Sutherland's home, and at 5:38 a.m. from the 3400 block of Morningside Drive.
Police collected a vague description from a witness of a man walking from the last fire, Gagan said.
"The person was described as being in their late teens, either a white or Hispanic male, about 6 feet and 170, wearing a black hooded jacket," Gagan said.
The cases remain under investigation. None of the agencies working on this series has reported anything similar in recent memory.
"Both of the vehicles were parked in the driveway, only about four feet from the house," Sutherland said. "I'm told the flames were going over the house."
An officer roused the Sutherlands
Insurance will take care of the vehicles, Sutherland said. And neighbors volunteered to help shuttle the day care kids where they need to go, he said.
"We were lucky, I guess you could say."
Staff writer Robert Salonga contributed to this story. Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/kfischer510.
