Suspected Arson Attempt at City Yachts

Sarah Kaplan of City Yachts reports that a man apparently jumped the fence at their Gashouse Cove docks this morning and tried to start a fire next to their office. "We don’t know what his motives were," Kaplan says, "but I want to get the word out to marinas and businesses around the Cityfront that he wasn’t afraid to do this in broad daylight."

At around 7 a.m. this morning, City Yachts’ security camera captured images of the suspect — a white male, approximately 6’1" tall, around 40 years old, with dark blond hair and possibly a goatee/moustache. He was wearing a black-and-white checked long-sleeved button-down shirt (untucked), glasses, jeans and white tennis shoes.

The man is suspected of using jerry cans — at least one of which had diesel in it — to fill a cooler with diesel and using a fuse to light it on fire under a bench next to the building. "The cooler already had water in it so all that happened was there was a bunch of smoke, and the jerry cans melted a little and started to leak fuel," Kaplan says. She arrived just before 8 a.m. and immediately contacted the SFPD, Park police and harbormaster. There was no damage to the building or dock, but we shudder to think what could have happened to City Yachts’ gas dock if the suspected arsonist had used gasoline instead of diesel.

Coincidentally — or possibly not — the bleachers at the America’s Cup Village caught fire around 3 a.m. yesterday morning. The arson investigation team responded, but no suspects were identified and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.