HAVE COPS NABBED DOWNTOWN PYROMANIAC WHO SET FIRES?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

For the past month or two, residents and business owners around the downtown area bounded roughly by International Boulevard,  the 77-83 Expressway and 12th Street say that there has been an arsonist at work.

"There have been fires set to old vacant buildings, a dumpster or two, and even trash piles in the alleys, said a downtown businessman,who asked for anonymity. "There was even a small one set in the alley behind the (Immaculate Conception) cathedral the other day. Someone has been setting those fires." 

The shopkeeper may have been right. 

Just last Thursday, police arrested a man caught on surveillance tape setting trash cans on fire. After viewing the tapes, the Brownsville Police Department  Criminal Investigation Unit identified him as Jesus Vela Treviño and taken into custody. 

The Brownsville Fire Department responded to the 1300 block of E. Madison in reference to three separate trash can fires in the area of E. 13th Street and Madison. A municipal judge set his bond at $250,000.

Police so far have only charged him with torching the three trash cans, but some downtown residents say that he has been busy lighting other things, including an old mattress used by the homeless to sleep in alleys and vacant lots.

"I know a guy named Cande whose mattress was set on fire by Treviño," said a woman who frequents La Ruleta, a bar on 14th Street near the intersection of Madison Street. "Cande got mad and chased him down the alley, but couldn't catch up to him. It was him."

Treviño is only charged with being the firebug who ignited the garbage cans, but as investigators probe his recent activities, they may confirm the suspicions of the downtown storekeeper that he might have had a hand in the other fires.

Fire investigators are looking for the person or persons who set two semi-demolished buildings on the corner of Madison and 12th streets last week and completely burned them to the ground. There was no one living in the structures and the electricity was not hooked up, which made the fire even more suspicious.

"The fire started in the building closest to the alley," said a fireman at the scene. "We have not determined the cause of the fire or if somebody set it on purpose."

But if the rash of fires in the downtown area stops after his arrest, the store keeper speculates that Treviño may well become a person of interest in the other blazes that have been started in the downtown area in the past few months. 

"Let's see if they stop after his arrest," he said.