An arsonist set fire to a row house in East Baltimore, trapping two people on the second floor Tuesday morning, the fire department said.
Firefighters entered the burning house and rescued both people. No one was hurt, they said, but one family was displaced.
The fire started about 6 a.m. and within hours investigators determined the row house at Barclay and Biddle streets was intentionally burned.
Officials, however, did not provide more information.
The fire was extinguished within 20 minutes. The front door was torn down and entrance charred. Later, men dragged out burned sofas. Police tape enclosed debris on the sidewalk. The men cleaning were friends of the family, they said.
"Nobody wants to talk," said another man. He said he was the landlord.
The arson is the latest crime in the Johnston Square neighborhood of East Baltimore.
Saturday night, about three blocks northeast, three gunmen converged on a crowd of people and opened fire. Eight people were shot, including a 3-year-old girl.
"We have no indication at this stage the incidents are related," said T.J. Smith, the police spokesman.
Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said Saturday's attack came in retaliation for a triple shooting on Labor Day.
In that shooting, nearly two miles east of Johnston Square, a 34-year-old man was killed and two women were wounded. One woman, shot in her leg, was pregnant. Police accused Marion "Nephew" Daughton, 31, said she was a member of the Bloods gang and named her Public Enemy No. 1.
Daughton was soon arrested, and has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and gun violations. She is held without bail pending a preliminary hearing Oct. 4 in District Court.
Toniasha Manique Johnson, 23, is also charged with first-degree murder in the Labor Day shooting. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Oct. 6 in District Court.