The Rapid City Fire Department responded to 5 fires in less than 7 hours Saturday night, including 4 that are considered suspicious and occurred in the same area.
All were in trash cans, dumpsters or shipping containers and were extinguished within 10 minutes.
The first fire was reported at 11:30 p.m. in a commercial dumpster behind the South Dakota State University College of Nursing
The second call came in around 1:00, a dumpster fire that quickly moved to engulf a garage and the vehicle inside. The fire destroyed the garage, a vehicle, and outdoor gear with the total loss possibly as high as $100,000.
As crews finished up that fire, a third dumpster fire came in around 2:00. It also spread from the dumpster, igniting a metal storage shed.
Firefighters had a couple hours to rest before a call for a structure fire came in at 5:45 where crews found a garbage can, garage, motorcycle, fence and bushes ablaze.
While still at that scene, the final call came in just after 6:00 for a shipping container with its contents on fire, but investigators say it appears to be unrelated to the first four.
The Rapid City Fire Dept is urging residents to secure their garbage cans and not leave them up against their garagem, while Rapid City police will do extra patrols in the suspicious fire areas.
The police department is also urging residents of those neighborhoods to report any suspicious behavior they might observe.