NORTHAMPTON, Mass., Dec. 27 (UPI) -- One of a series of suspected arson fires early Sunday in a small Massachusetts town killed an 81-year-old man and his son.
The blazes marked the latest in a string of suspicious fires going back about a year in Northampton, just north of the Connecticut border, the Hartford Courant reported.
Arson investigators say at least eight and possibly as many as 11 fires were started around 2 a.m. Sunday. Four homes and at least four cars were set afire, authorities said.
The elderly man and his son died inside one house.
Firefighters said that blaze spread so quickly they were unable to enter the house.
"It didn't take long for the house to explode,'' said next-door neighbor Peter Curtis.
Local and state authorities are investigating the fires. No estimates of property damage have been given.
Past fires, in in about a half-mile radius in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Northampton, had been "nuisance fires," such as leaves or abandoned cars being set on fire.
But houses being set on fire makes it "more scary than ever," Curtis said.
No one has been arrested in the arsons, authorities said.
