Cedar Rapids Fire and Police Departments Investigating Multitude of Suspicious Fires

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department and Cedar Rapids Police Department are combining efforts as they investigate a string of suspicious fires in the city over the last two nights.

According to a media release from the City of Cedar Rapids, firefighters with the Cedar Rapids Fire Department have responded to six different suspicious fires in two quadrants of the city.

The first four fires were reported to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department on Wednesday, October 7 between 12:02 and 12:33 a.m. They were all on the northeast side of Cedar Rapids. The locations were:

• 200 block of 15th Street NE
• 1500 block of C Avenue NE
• C Avenue and 16th Street NE
• 29th Street and Prairie Drive NE

The city's Public Safety Communications Coordinator, Greg Buelow, says all the fires were suspicious.

Thursday morning, October 8, two more suspicious fires were reported, both on the southwest side. The first call came into the Cedar Rapids Fire Department at 2:53 a.m., for a fire near Rockford Road and Wilson Avenue SW. The second was about 10 minutes later in the 1000 block of 2nd Avenue SW. The city says both of this morning's fires appear to have been intentionally set.

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department says all six fires involved mattresses and other debris on fire.

Cedar Rapids Fire investigators are working with police on the cases. If you see any suspicious activity, please report it. Also, if you have surveillance video from the areas where the fires were reported, you're asked to view it. Information can be provided to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department at (319) 286-5200.