A fire possibly started by an arson that burned the building at 1205 A Street was one of six fires in Antioch north of Highway 4, Thursday night, Dec. 21. Photo by ConFire.

By Allen Payton

A series of six fires on the north side of Antioch Thursday night are believed to be the acts of an arsonist, according to Antioch Police.

The public was alerted to the fires late Thursday night by the Public Information Officer for the Contra Costa Fire Protection District George Laing

Posted at 10:53 p.m. on the ConFire PIO Twitter account was the message, “Series of fire in #Antioch , 5 building on Madill st and 1 on A street. All fires now under control. All structures abandoned.”

Then at 11:00 p.m. Laing posted “#Antioch fires- A street (with photo)” and “All #Antioch fires under control.”

The photo provided shows the building at 1205 A Street on fire.

Asked if an arson investigation had begun, Antioch Police Corporal Shawn Morin said, “the arson investigators responded and took over the investigations. It will be arson investigations with the Contra Costa Fire Department that will be handling everything. We don’t have anything to do with it at this point. We don’t have any leads, we don’t have any type of information of who or what or how these things were started at all.”

A call to ConFire PIO Laing was not returned prior to publication.

Please check back later for details.

Owner Paula Franchetto-Trotta, husband Chris Trotta, her parents Bob and Mary Franchetto, and Fr. Roberto of Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church across the street assess the damage to the business Monday morning, Dec. 18.

The damage to the interior of the building.

By Allen Payton

The building that houses Paula’s Family Florist, located at 1412 A Street in Antioch, was destroyed by fire at about 4:30 a.m. Monday morning. Owner Paula Franchetto-Trotta, husband Chris Trotta, her parents Bob and Mary Franchetto, and Fr. Roberto of Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church were on hand at about 9:30 a.m. to assess the damage to the business.

It’s believed the cause was some homeless people starting a fire in the dumpster, Paula said. It’s a total loss, Chris said.

The business has been in the family for three generations and at the A Street location for over 50 years, Bob said, starting with his father. Cottage Florist is the former name before Bob and Mary sold the business to Paula.

Fortunately, Bob was late getting there, Mary said. He’s usually in by 4:00 a.m. and they believe the fire started about 4:30 when neighbors called the fire department. Bob said firefighters told him they had a hard time getting through the roof.

“I built the roof,” Bob added.

The family said they will move into and operate temporarily from the storage unit on the back lot of the property until all the insurance company can pay to rebuild. (See more photos on the Herald Facebook page)

The front of the building with fire retardant foam following the extinguishing of the fire Monday morning.

Car on fire on the side of eastbound Highway 4 near Highway 160 offramp, Sunday, July 16, 2017. Photos by Allen Payton

By Allen Payton

A car caught fire on the side of eastbound Highway 4 just west of the Highway 160 onramp and interchange, Sunday, July 16, 2017 at approximately 6:00 p.m. The fire then jumped to the grass on the adjacent hillside and quickly spread up the hill. Fire crews were able to bring the fire under control, but not until it had consumed approximately 30 acres.

The fire jumped to the adjacent hillside.

Emergency crews arrived and began fighting the fire.

As crews battled the fire, it continued to quickly spread up the hill.