The article really buries the lede:
> The numbers cited by Campos and others—45 fires in two years—also weren’t necessarily as suspicious as they seemed. It turns out that 25 fires a year is about average for the Mission.
> The numbers cited by Campos and others—45 fires in two years—also weren’t necessarily as suspicious as they seemed. It turns out that 25 fires a year is about average for the Mission.
So, a big fat pile of nothing, plus a narration of the (very real) inter-ethnic and inter-class tensions in the Mission intended to make the story sound more plausible.
Also, can I just add how irresponsible David Campos's role has been in all this?
> “I’m not saying there is arson,” he said. “The fire department tells me there isn’t. They haven’t found evidence of arson.”
> “Have you come across any clues?” I asked.
> “Nothing’s come up,” he said.
> “Are there rumors?”
> “There are comments,” he said. “Like with that fire that happened at the car-repair place.”
> He meant the Rolling Stock tire-shop fire of November 8, 2015. It destroyed the shop and two adjacent apartment buildings, displacing 21 people. Fire investigators ruled this one an accident as well, most likely started by an electrical fault or, again, discarded smoking materials.
> “The owner [James Albera] was sort of, ‘Hey! Now I guess we can go and build condos,’ ” Campos continued. “It was an odd comment that fed into the speculation.”
> Later, I found Albera’s verbatim comments to the media: “It’s terrible. It’s been in the family since 1960.” And then, when asked what he planned to do next: “I’d like to go residential, with stores on the bottom.”
> I e-mailed Albera several times to ask him about what Campos told me. Personally, I didn’t find his response to the fire suspicious. Even so, he didn’t reply.