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SYRACUSE — Police are on the lookout for an alleged arsonist, and the family targeted is speaking out about what they experienced when part of their yard was lit on fire Saturday night.
The whole ordeal was captured on camera by a neighbor's security system.
The fire ignited just before 9 p.m. on Saturday, at 1950 South near 1275 West in Syracuse. A couple of minutes after flames lit up the dark street, a car stopped and a group of teens hopped out.
They jumped into action. One called 911 while others frantically banged on the front door of Bryce Johnson's home to alert him.
One of them is heard on security footage yelling, "You have a hose?"
Johnson didn't have time to think, only to act.
"I had bare feet on, so I go running out the door, running on the ice, running through the snow," Johnson recounted. "And right next to my truck, there were like eight-foot high flames and our entire bush on fire."
The flames and smoke are seen on surveillance jumping in the air. Johnson can be seen running to another part of his yard to scoop up snow to help put the blaze out.
The teens are heard guessing how the fire started. Johnson thought maybe someone threw a cigarette out a car window. He figured it was all an accident — until he watched his neighbor's surveillance footage.
"It was very intentional," he said of what he saw on the footage. "Someone actually walked up and lit the bush on fire, and that moment we knew it was something more serious."
The victims have absolutely no reason as to why someone would want to do this to their bush.
–Det. Erin Behm, Syracuse Police Department
Other cameras in the neighborhood picked up the person, whom police think is likely a male teen, walking east on 1950 South along the sidewalk before starting the fire in Johnson's yard. He quickly ran east after appearing to ignite the blaze.
"It is very strange," Syracuse Police Det. Erin Behm said. "I don't know if it's boredom, or — the victims have absolutely no reason as to why someone would want to do this to their bush."
Even if the damage ended up being contained to the large grasses and a sprinkler head, for police and Johnson, it's about more than lighting a bush on fire.
"If something was severely damaged, then where would we be?" Behm asked. She's hoping to get more surveillance footage from anyone living east of 1275 West, along 1950 South.
She also hopes to find and speak to the person, saying they could be cited for damaging property.
Johnson wonders how bad the blaze could have gotten, had the car of teens not driven by and alerted him so quickly.
"It could have hurt us, it could have burnt our entire house down," he said. "But it's all what could have happened. We caught it in time. It didn't happen, thank goodness – but it could have."
He's feeling thankful and lucky for the teens who stopped to help, and for the snow still piled on his north-facing lawn that he used to put the fire out.
But Johnson hopes this doesn't happen again, to anyone else.
"When something like this happens, that is threatening my family's safety," he said, adding, "and there's just no words for it."
Anyone with footage or who may know or recognize the person who started the fire should call the Syracuse Police Department at 801-825-4400.
