Jamie Doyle was startled when her doorbell rang at 10 p.m. Saturday, but when she looked through the window of her Bel Air home, she said she was terrified to see smoke and flames nearly 3 feet high on her front porch.
Someone had filled a mailbox with paper and set it ablaze. She quickly doused the fire with water and called 911.
She had seen a car pull away but was too consumed with putting out the fire to get any details.
"The fire was literally at my front door," said Doyle. "They must have just lit the fire when they rang the bell. I have to hope they were trying to alert me."
Her home on Paige Circle was one of seven vandalized by fire, firebombs and in one case, a Molotov cocktail, in Harford County last weekend.
No one was injured, and property damage was minor. Yet after a third consecutive weekend of similar scenes throughout the county, officials and residents are gravely concerned.
"The problem is that the incidents are increasing and escalating," said Joseph Zurolo, a spokesman for the state fire marshal's office. "Starting fires is a serious crime. Somebody will get hurt. There is always a risk to yourself or somebody else."
Investigators are working to determine whether the crimes - three Friday evening, one early Saturday morning and three more later that night - are related.
The incidents are not connected to fires that destroyed several vehicles along U.S. 40 in Aberdeen and Joppa on Feb. 14. But, Zurolo said, the information gathered yesterday "could put the responsibility for the last three weekends on the same persons."
On Feb. 17, vandals did about $500 damage to William S. James Elementary School in Abingdon with a fire set with leaves and brush. On the same evening, fires were set in shrubs at homes on David Court and Rambler Road, both in Bel Air.
On Feb. 9, stolen tires were ignited and rolled into Route 924 in the county seat.
"Everything seems to be random, but we are trying to put things together to see what kind of pattern we can come up with," Zurolo said. "This has been happening for the last three weekends and nearly always after 10 p.m."
Within 15 minutes of the fire at Doyle's home, a mailbox on Dixie Drive on the other side of Bel Air was in flames.
Kim Skarzenski, a resident of the street, said she spotted from her front window a small black SUV with five teenage boys. Thinking they were friends of her children, she called out to the driver and one passenger who had gotten out of the vehicle, carrying what she thought were baseball bats.
"I must have startled them," she said. "They jumped back in the car and raced off. Then I looked up the street and saw the mailbox on fire."
Several large trees surrounded the burning mailbox on Dixie Drive.
With the right winds, the fire could have quickly spread, neighbors said.
Many residents said they believe the fires are the work of teenage vandals.
"What about all the good activities kids can do on a Saturday night?" asked Usha Srinivasan of Dixie Drive. "Why are they running around in the dead of night setting fires?"
The incidents Saturday followed firebombings Friday night. About 10 p.m., a bottle containing caustic liquid was thrown into the parking lot of a townhouse complex in Brierhill Estates, near Route 543.
"It sounded like one of those big firecrackers that people set off on the Fourth of July," said Margaret Keech of Bennett Place. "I figured it was kids' pranks, but 10 minutes later, we had all sorts of fire equipment."
Neighbor Tina Schreiber said she smelled smoke and saw officers hovering around the community's mailboxes.
"I was definitely scared," Schreiber said. "This could have been worse. People were still coming and going. What if it had rolled under a car?"
While officers were investigating the firebomb, they were alerted to another fire in Forest Hill, where shortly before 11 p.m., a flammable liquid was ignited on a porch of a home on Trudeau Drive.
About 15 minutes later, another bottle filled with caustic substances exploded on Street Road in Highlands. And at 1:16 a.m. Sunday, a Molotov cocktail exploded on Route 24 near Ring Factory Road.
The rapid succession of events sows fear and creates a chill in the heart, one resident said. Many residents, fearing reprisals, would only speak anonymously.
Zurolo said news reports of the incidents have generated numerous calls to the fire marshal, including reports of stolen mailboxes.
"People are reporting more damages from similar incidents," he said. "We keep bumping up the numbers."
The mailbox at an Abingdon home, near Route 924, was also blown up Saturday, bringing to seven the number of incidents, Zurolo said.
Skarzenski believes that high school boys are committing the vandalism.
"Two of us in the neighborhood saw them," she said. "Some parents are really not paying attention, and somebody is going to get hurt."
mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com