Burning tire thrown on roof starts fire at Chandler apartments

CHANDLER, AZ - Authorities say a fire that started on the roof of a Chandler apartment complex may have been an act of arson.

Residents of the complex near Pecos Road and Arizona Avenue awoke to a burning tire on their roof early this morning.

They are still shaken by the thought that the fire may have been intentionally set.

Katie Torres lives in apartment three, and she is glad she was awake when someone knocked at her door around 2 a.m.

"It could have hurt a lot of people," Torres said. "This whole place could have gone up."

Torres said it was a neighbor across the street who first spotted the fire and called for help.

Firefighters say it was a burning tire tossed up onto the roof that started the fire.

It caused some damage to shingles on the roof but not much more.

But Torres still wonders why anyone would do this in their Chandler neighborhood.