Two fires in old town

NICOSIA CID was yesterday investigating a fire which destroyed a van parked in a lot at the centre of the old town late on Wednesday nigh.

It would have been just another routine arson case if it were not for an earlier fire at a derelict house just up the road from where the van was parked, off Alexis Komninos street.

That fire was noticed at around 10.30pm but was put out by the prompt response of the fire service, which has a station around 300 metres from the scene.

But less than half-an-hour later – 11.50pm –anxious residents notified the fire service again about a burning vehicle just 50 metres from the first blaze.

The blaze was extinguished in record time by the fire service before it spread to other cars parked in the lot.

The scene was sealed off and fire service officers carried out investigations at first light yesterday.

They confirmed that it had been a malicious act, despite not finding any flammable material on the scene.

The main evidence was that pieces from the driver’s window were found inside the van instead of outside, like the rest of the windows. This showed that the glass had been forced inwards while the rest of the windows were forced outwards by the pressure created by the fire.

Though the authorities were not connecting the cases – at least not officially – concern was growing among residents as there had been two other malicious fires in the area around a month ago.

One concerned the arson of a car parked in the yard of a house off Arsinoe Street, which runs perpendicular to Alexis Komninos Street – and is just 20 metres from the derelict house and a stone’s-throw away from the lot where the van was torched.

The second case involved the burning of the electricity meters inside a building on Germanos Patron Street, which is just a block away from the other scenes.

One source said however that the modus operandi, was not the same.