Just a week after a homeless man was arrested for screaming that he was going to set the whole neighborhood ablaze, Castro residents are freaking over the fourth suspected arson in the area in less than two days. Early Thursday morning firefighters responded first to a trashcan fire around 4:25 a.m., and then minutes later to two major apartment building fires in Victorian buildings a few blocks away. One building, at 16th and Market, was home to 17 people, all of whom are currently displaced. The other building, at 17th and Hartford, was empty. As the Examiner reports, no one was injured in either blaze, except for a firefighter who twisted his ankle, and no one seems sure what became of the "deranged" homeless man who had been arrested a week earlier for his fire threats. Both buildings were heavily damaged.

Then last night, a fourth small fire had to be put out on a porch at 18th and Collingwood around 4:30 a.m., where someone seems to have lit a piece of plastic on fire. Supervisor Scott Wiener, for his part, is disturbed.

Notes the Ex, "Arson investigators have yet to determined a motive. But because of where the fires took place — The City’s famously gay-friendly neighborhood — they are not ruling out the possibility the arsons are a hate crime." Anyone with any information regarding any of the fires is asked to call the investigator team at (415) 920-2937.

Previously: SFFD Suspects Foul Play in Multiple Early Morning Castro Fires