A woman living in an RV in West Oakland was forced out by two masked men with guns who threatened to light her on fire. When she fled, they set two RVs on fire, according to police and witness accounts.
A woman living in an RV at 28th and Union streets called Oakland police at 9:47 p.m. on Friday. She told police that two masked men had entered her RV, pointed guns at her and told her to get out or they’d light her on fire, according to Oakland police dispatch radio and logs.
She left and the men set her RV and another RV on fire. The fire nearly burned a nearby building, but Oakland firefighters put the fire out before it could spread through the walls.
As of Tuesday, the destroyed RVs were still on the street, according to independent journalist Dave Id.
Oakland police spokesperson Officer Johnna Watson declined to provide any additional details about the incident. “We can confirm we have the report, this case is being investigated,” she wrote in an email on Tuesday. “At this time there is no additional information.”
Oakland police did not respond to questions about whether officers had any information about possible suspects or whether there had been any similar attacks on people living in RVs.
A 66-year-old man died in an RV fire nearby in February. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the man had been inside the RV at 30th and Linden streets at about 4:45 a.m. on Feb. 11 when it caught fire.
Two more RVs caught fire at 6:45 a.m. the following day at West Grand Avenue and Wood Street under an overpass. The residents there managed to escape but the RVs were destroyed, according to the East Bay Times.
Another arson fire targeted a homeless person in the same neighborhood as Friday’s in 2017, according to video obtained by the East Bay Express. The video shows a man approaching a tent on Union Street and setting it on fire.
The Express reported at the time that it was the second intentionally-set fire in the same neighborhood in a few weeks.
