The man arrested for torching two Teslas within a block of each other in SoMa on the same night in early 2024 was indeed a serial carsonist, as he was just found guilty at trial of also having torched five other cars the week before.
It sure seemed like the work of the same arsonist when two Tesla Model Y cars were set ablaze on the same night the evening of February 24, 2024, both within about a block of each other in SoMa. One of the fires was at Shipley and Fourth streets, the other at Mabini and Bonifacio streets, and the suspect was captured on video in the KPIX report below. This was just two weeks after the infamous burning of a Waymo at the Chinatown Lunar New Year celebrations, so it was fair to wonder if all of this was the work of the same serial carsonist.
It was not the same carsonist, but a different serial carsonist who burned the two Waymos. DA Brooke Jenkins’s office announced Friday afternoon that 63-year-old Armando Salvador was found guilty of torching the two Teslas. But he was not just a Tesla torcher, because as prosecutors proved at trial, he also set fire to six other non-Tesla cars in a single night just one week before.
1/ San Francisco District Attorney @BrookeJenkinsSF announced today that her office secured a conviction of Armando Salvador after a trial by jury for arson.
— SF DISTRICT ATTORNEY (@SFDAOffice) October 10, 2025
Mr. Salvador was convicted of eight counts of arson of another's property, and two counts of unlawfully causing a fire. pic.twitter.com/Y8jEszNetA
“According to the testimony and evidence presented at trial, on the evening of February 18, 2024, at approximately six am, Mr. Salvador, beginning at Campton Place, lit a Cadillac Escalade on fire then set fire to five additional vehicles located on Geary Street and O’Farrell Street,” Jenkins’s office said in their Friday press release.
Salvador was found guilty of eight counts of arson of another person's property, and two counts of unlawfully causing a fire.
The Chronicle’s March report on Salvador’s arrest noted that “during the arrest, officers also seized suspected methamphetamine from Salvador.” But there are no drug charges listed in Jenkins’s press release. So maybe he beat the rap on that one, maybe it wasn't actually meth, or maybe his attorney or public defender was just able to plead that charge out.
Salvador’s sentencing is currently scheduled for October 27, 2025.
Related: SFPD Suspects An Arsonist Is Targeting Teslas After Two Catch on Fire in SoMa [SFist]
Image via Citizen App
